Police target gambling machines in Majuro and enforce local law

BY GIFF JOHNSON
Marshall Islands Correspondent

MAJURO, Marshall Islands — The Marshall Islands Attorney General’s office said that following police raids of numerous businesses, which resulted in confiscation of dozens of gambling machines in Majuro in late April that criminal charges are expected to be filed in the near future.

Although the gambling machines — that resemble slot machines or video arcade-type games — have been in use throughout the capital atoll for several years, the Attorney General’s office declared the gambling machines violate Marshall Islands law that prohibits gambling.

“Tackling the slot machines has been on the agenda of the (law enforcement) task force as there have been many complaints made to the office relating to these machines,” Assistant Attorney General Joe J. Lomae said in the last week of April, following the roundup by Marshall Islands Police Department officers of gambling machines around the atoll.

Deputy Police Commissioner Eric Jorbon confirmed that 41 gambling machines were removed from local businesses by MIPD officers.

“We are anticipating to commence filing charges once we receive reports from MIPD and the aim is to find the main source or person/company that is importing these machines and how these machines even get past our border officials,” Lomae said.

One source — speaking on condition of anonymity — indicated that businesses importing these machines do so by bringing them in unassembled and then put them together after arrival in Majuro to avoid rejection by Customs at the point of import. Customs officials told a meeting of enforcement officials in April that the importing companies claim these are gaming machines for children.

Each of the 41 machines confiscated by MIPD contains unknown amounts of money from the customers using them prior to the police raids. “Under Section 405(5), the Gaming and Recreation Prohibition Act of 1998 gives the power to the police, among others, to confiscate any profits suspected of being obtained as a result of, or during the commission of an offense under the said Act,” Lomae said.

Some businesses in Majuro had received business licenses for “gaming machines,” as a result of a Majuro Atoll Local Government ordinance. However, recent discussions between the local government and national government law enforcement clarified that these “gaming machines” are, in fact, gambling machines.

Majuro Mayor Ladie Jack said that the local government was “under the impression that national (government) had allowed it (gaming machines) and that’s why our Finance people had issued such licenses. We were under the impression that these were kids play machines and didn’t really pay attention to them.”

Since Marshall Islands authorities had not blocked importation of the machines, the local government reasoned they were legal. “Reason being is that first enforcement comes through Marshall Islands Customs clearance,” Jack said. “They should have been barred and destroyed before being cleared.”

After discussion with the Attorney General and national police, “we went ahead and revoked all gaming licenses,” the mayor said.

The police action in late April comes 25 years after the Nitijela (the parliament) passed legislation outlawing gambling in response to strong community opposition to gambling machines in use in the late 1990s. Marshall Islands churches banded together on the gambling issue to create a potent community force behind the repeal of then-existing legislation that allowed gambling. In 1998, the Nitijela adopted a ban on gambling in response to community concern about the negative social and economic impact of gambling machines and the law has remained on the books since. mbj