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Casinos for you
Hawaii is Mulling Over Building the State’s First Casino and Resort
By Jeff Osienya Dec 27, 2020 LegalityThe Hawaiian Homes Commission has given the green light for DHHL’s casino and resort proposal. If everything goes as planned, the casino is poised to rake in over $30 million in funding to be pumped into DHHL’s Native Hawaiians housing project.Land-based casino gaming, riverboat casinos, lotteries, and horse track betting facilities have been common for decades across different states in the USA. Besides, after the PASPA repeal in May 2018, more states in the US continue jumping into the bandwagon of regulated sports betting month after month. Usually, the huge tax proceeds that are collected by states to fund different projects and the creation of employment opportunities are the primary reasons why the various legal forms of gambling are considered.
To date, due to the lucrative nature of commercial gaming, all states in the USA have some form of legal commercial gambling going on within their borders, except for, Utah and Hawaii. But then based on recent developments in Hawaii, it appears that Utah will soon be the only state left with anti-gambling policies in the country. The Paradise of the Pacific is officially making headway towards the introduction of limited gaming in its borders.
Last Tuesday, Hawaii’s Homes Commission okayed a new plan to construct the first casino in the Aloha State after a 5 to 4 vote in favor of a draft bill by members of the committee. The draft bill will now be passed over to the state’s assembly for consideration. David Ige, the Governor of Hawaii and the office of the Attorney General in the state will now review the draft bill before it is presented to the legislature. And in case the governor and the Attorney General choose not to give their approval in this stage, it will be up to the Hawaii Homes Commission to find legislative sponsors who will then forward the bill in the assembly for further discussions about its components.
Why is The Paradise of the Pacific Finally Welcoming the Idea of Casino Gaming?
As you might have already guessed, Hawaii’s casino plan is being pursued in a bid to bring in more money to fund an important project for the state residents.
The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), is currently facing a revenue deficit to fund a century-old program that was introduced to ensure that Native Hawaiians are returned to their ancestral lands. Based on state-law, any resident aged 18 and above and is at least half-Hawaiian has the right to a home under a state-controlled land trust.
As we speak, however, the DHHL is overwhelmed by the surging number of beneficiaries, with some of them having waited for over 20 years. Since 1995, the department has only managed the construction of 3,300 residential lots, whereas over 23,000 beneficiaries of the program are waiting in line. It’s already bad enough that earlier in fall, the DHHL came under heavy criticism over how it’s handling the housing program. If you factor in the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, it makes sense that the DHHL is looking at gaming as a source of revenue, and thus the department passed on the proposal to the Homes Commission.
After approval of the vote on Tuesday, the Deputy chairperson of the DHHL Tyler Iokepa Gomes supported the initiative saying that;
Quote"With the Commission’s decision today, we are hopeful that the Hawaii State Legislature will see the urgency of finally addressing the funding shortages of this program.
The measure the Department is proposing is bold but we’re at a pivotal point where bold action is necessary to fulfill the responsibility of the trust. We hear the pleas of beneficiaries across the board including the need for swift action to move beneficiaries off the Waiting List and onto homestead lots. This effort does not shift DHHL’s focus from creating homestead opportunities, instead, it provides a way forward in terms of an economic solution to face the common denominator for the struggles faced by the Department – the opportunity to create adequate funding.
This bill is the single greatest opportunity that we have to put ourselves in the dominion of exercising economic self-sufficiency”
In his statement, Gomes also indicated that should the casino plan materialize, the state-run casino would win over $30 million annually, funds that will be channeled into the Native Hawaiians housing project. The casino and resort in question will be built in Kapolei in the department’s designated commercial property.
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