Gambling is illegal in Guam: Elected officials must stop making excuses and exemptions – The Guam Daily Post (press release) (registration)

There are various forms of commercially operated gambling in Guam, including game rooms, some of which have landed in the news occasionally when they got robbed.

Gambling is, by law, illegal on the island.

Somehow, gambling continues to be run, not clandestinely, but out in full public view, sponsored in part by mayors under the guise of these mini-casino table games being part of fiestas that, ironically, are held to honor Catholic patron saints.

Bingo gambling is held all the time, in the name of fundraisers, run by nonprofits.

The mayoral-sponsored gambling allows mini-casino operations every year during the Guam Liberation carnival. The carnival is to celebrate the U.S. militarys invasion that freed Guam Chamorros from the atrocities of the Japanese wartime occupiers, but somehow, this is celebrated all summer long, through a carnival that showcases a pop-up casino operation that offers table games.

At these table games, paychecks are lost and squandered, and many family breadwinners return home from hours of gambling without the money their family needs to pay for power, water, gasoline and other needs of the household.

So why do certain mayors insist on allowing gambling, in the name of fiestas, for Catholic patron saints?

Some of them have said their villages cut in the gaming" operation helps them to offer certain services to constituents.

One mayor went as far as saying that gambling money revenues help pay for village events such as Easter egg hunts.

There needs to be a point, and hopefully that will be soon, when the mayors, island senators and executive branch officials who seem to be OK with gambling activities take a stand. Hopefully it will be soon when they say "No more."

Guam voters have taken to the polls several times to say "No" to various forms of gambling.

There should be no excuses for fiestas, no excuses for establishments called game rooms, no excuses for nonprofit fundraisers for elderly folks or health care, and no lame excuses like: The gambling revenues help young kids hunt for plastic eggs and candy for Easter.

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Gambling is illegal in Guam: Elected officials must stop making excuses and exemptions - The Guam Daily Post (press release) (registration)