by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Since the public hearing on Bill 19 aimed at regulating all gaming activities on island Senator Chris Duenas and Senator Tommy Morrison have been working tirelessly to address the concerns posed by the public.

Working with the Attorney General's Office, the vice speaker, and chairman Senator Ben Pangelinan is the bill's co-sponsor Senator Morrison. "We have been making a lot of headway been doing a lot of research out of the public hearing to incorporate into the bill and to better express what our intentions are," he said. "Out of the public hearing there was some great testimony provided to the committee and we have incorporated a lot of things into the bill to make it better expressed such again as how we would like to capture those revenues and put them into better public benefit."

Their intent is to ensure that gaming on island is properly regulated and the revenues generated by the gaming industry goes to the public. "That benefit would be to the Mayors Council of Guam to help support the recreation and sports facilities the Department of Parks and Recreation their parks and recreation facilities and the Department of Education their sports facilities and that where we are at, at this time," he said.

Senator Morrison is hopeful that the measure will make it onto this week's session agenda and would like to make clear. "This is not about Guam national Olympic Committee or non-profits per se, this is about how we can properly regulate gaming on the island and it speaks to fundamentally about our leadership when we know that gaming is taking place on our island and I know a lot of the gaming groups would support us," he said.