The Casino Control Commission caught up with months of work Tuesday in its first full meeting since July.
The session was the first for Lloyd McAlpin, a new commissioner who filled the seat vacated by Dennis Brow last July. Since that time commission members Eileen Petersen and Imelda Dizon have lacked quorum and have not been able to act on items before them.
But despite the regained abilities of the commission, Petersen lamented that legislation amending the Casino Control Act to create a casino control revolving fund hasn’t been implemented by the Department of Finance.
The fund is needed so that the Division of Gaming Enforcement can, in the short term, pay a vendor to test 300 slot machines before the Divi Carina Bay Resort and Casino opens sometime in March. Petersen noted that licensing fees for the machines have already been paid by the casino but said the fund is needed in order to write checks.
"We are urgently awaiting word" about the fund, Petersen said. "It is imperative we have the funds to test the slot machines."
Oliver David, director of gaming enforcement, said his office is negotiating with a "highly regarded" off-island company with expertise in testing slot machines. He said a contract could be completed in the next two weeks.
But without money, the testing won’t start and, once again, the opening of the casino looms in the future.
"Without the machines being tested, they can’t be operated at the casino," he said.
Petersen, meanwhile, said she will continue to call Finance Commissioner Bernice Turnbull to have the fund established.
"I’ve been calling her every day," Petersen said. "And I will continue to do so."
In other board action, McAlpin reported that the Department of Labor has issued 155 work permits for the Divi Carina Bay Resort and Casino. He said 128, or 83 percent, of them went to bonafide Virgin Islanders. A bonafide resident is a person born in the territory or someone who has lived here for five years or more.
The Casino Control Act mandates that after the end of a casino resort’s first year, 65 percent of its employees must be local residents.
