Legal casino gambling age in Northern Mariana Islands
The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) is a US commonwealth in the western Pacific whose main inhabited islands are Saipan, Tinian and Rota. Its constitution prohibits gambling except where authorised by Commonwealth law or by popular initiative, and the result is an unusual, island-by-island patchwork. Saipan has a single exclusive casino licence created in 2014, Tinian and Rota have their own casino laws adopted by local initiative, alongside a public lottery and licensed gaming machines. No casino appears to have been operating in 2026. There is no Commonwealth-wide licensing regime for online casinos, although a contested 2025 Tinian law allows a local commission to issue internet gaming licences.
Key points
- Article XXI of the CNMI Constitution bans gambling unless it is provided for by Commonwealth law or established by initiative. In 2012 the CNMI Supreme Court held that a local law passed by a single island’s legislative delegation cannot authorise gambling.
- Public Law 18-56 (2014) created one exclusive casino licence for Saipan, with a 25-year term, a US$15 million annual licence fee and a US$2 billion minimum investment. The sole licensee’s casino has been closed since March 2020, and its licence was suspended in 2021.
- In May 2025 the governor issued an executive order abolishing the Commonwealth Casino Commission and moving its functions to the Commonwealth Lottery Commission. The Senate and a House committee disputed the order’s constitutionality.
- Tinian Local Law 24-03, which took effect on 19 May 2025 over the governor’s veto, allows up to 11 internet gaming licences. The governor and Attorney General considered it legally deficient, and we found no report that any licence had been issued.
- Outside these special laws, running casino-type games as a business is a misdemeanour under 6 CMC § 3155 and § 3159, punishable by a fine of up to US$2,000, imprisonment of up to one year, or both.
Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.
Online casinos for Northern Mariana Islands
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Historical development
The statutory prohibition on gambling is the gambling article of the criminal code, now 6 CMC §§ 3151–3160, which derives from Public Law 3-70. The same law exempted the Commonwealth from the federal Gambling Devices Act (the Johnson Act), which restricts transporting gambling machines (6 CMC § 3153). A public lottery was authorised by Public Law 3-60, which took effect on 3 June 1983, according to the Commonwealth Lottery Commission.
The constitutional ban came from the Second Constitutional Convention of 1985. As the CNMI Supreme Court explained in Palacios v. Yumul, 2012 MP 12, the Second Constitutional Convention added Article XXI, which allows gambling only where it is “provided by Commonwealth law” or “established through initiative” in the Commonwealth or in one of its senatorial districts. Delegates deliberately removed the words “or local law” from the draft. This structure explains why Tinian and Rota, each a separate senatorial district, adopted casino laws by local initiative: Tinian with the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Act of 1989, and Rota with the Rota Casino Act of 2007, enacted as Rota Local Initiative 1 and effective from 17 November 2007 (Rota Casino Gaming Commission regulations).
Saipan took another route. In 2011 its legislative delegation passed a local casino bill, which the governor vetoed. In September 2012 the Supreme Court held that a local law is not “Commonwealth law” for the purposes of Article XXI, so a district delegation cannot authorise gambling on its own (Palacios v. Yumul). Casino gaming on Saipan was therefore authorised by Commonwealth-wide statute. Public Law 18-30, the Tourism Entertainment and Destination Act of 2013, signed on 13 December 2013, permitted electronic gaming machines in larger Saipan hotels (Saipan Tribune). Public Law 18-56, signed on 11 July 2014, created the exclusive Saipan casino licence (Public Law 18-56).
The Saipan licensee opened a temporary casino in 2015 and its hotel-casino in 2017 (Inside Asian Gaming, 2026). The casino closed in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and has not reopened (Islands Business). On Tinian, a casino resort closed in late 2015 after its owner was fined US$75 million by US authorities for anti-money-laundering violations, and its licence was revoked in 2016. A second Tinian casino closed in December 2024 (Inside Asian Gaming, January 2026).
Legal framework
The general prohibition
Under 6 CMC § 3155, it is unlawful for a person covered by the gambling article to deal, operate or conduct, as a business, games such as craps, roulette, keno, twenty-one, or any banking or percentage game played with cards, dice or a device, or any gambling device, for money or anything of value. The section also refers to playing or betting at or against such games. Violations are misdemeanours carrying a fine of up to US$2,000, imprisonment of up to one year, or both (6 CMC § 3159).
The main statutory exemptions are listed in 6 CMC § 3156. They cover poker amusement machines, the Commonwealth lottery, bingo, bato, raffles and cockfighting, pachinko machines, licensed casinos together with their employees and patrons, and licensed electronic gaming machines and electronic table games. Machines may operate only in the Third Senatorial District (Saipan and the Northern Islands), in hotels of at least 100 rooms or smaller hotels attached to a golf course.
The Saipan casino law: Public Law 18-56
Public Law 18-56, the Commonwealth Casino Act, was enacted as House Bill 18-195 and signed by Governor Eloy S. Inos on 11 July 2014. It repealed and re-enacted an earlier 2014 casino law (Public Law 18-38, as amended by Public Law 18-43). Its main features are:
- one exclusive licence for 25 years, extendable by 15 years;
- a US$1 million non-refundable application fee and an annual licence fee of US$15 million, adjusted every five years for inflation but never below US$15 million;
- a minimum investment of US$2 billion, including a resort with at least 2,000 guest rooms;
- a five-member Commonwealth Casino Commission, with three members from Saipan and one each nominated for Rota and Tinian;
- exclusion of people under 21 from gaming areas;
- earmarking of licence-fee revenue, much of it to restore a 25% cut in public-sector pensions.
Later statutes adjusted this framework. Public Law 19-24 imposed an annual casino regulatory fee of US$3 million, payable each October and increasing by 5% every five years, according to a 2025 House committee report. Public Law 21-38, signed on 7 January 2021, made the Commission an autonomous agency and confirmed its powers, according to the Commission’s FY2021 citizen-centric report. Public Law 18-56 also barred new licences for poker and pachinko machines after April 2015 outside an approved casino, hotel or similar venue, so poker fee income was expected to decline (10 CMC § 3841, Commission comment).
Tinian and Rota
On Tinian, Tinian Local Law 21-09, also known as the Revised Tinian Casino Gaming Control Act of 1989, created the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission. The Commission’s work includes licensing, investigation, inspection and revenue auditing for casino gaming on Tinian and Aguiguan (TCGCC FY2022 report). On Rota, the Rota Casino Act of 2007 (10 CMC §§ 12101–12163) provides for a five-member Rota Casino Gaming Commission appointed by the Mayor. Its regulations, last amended in June 2024, provide for full, conditional and temporary casino licences (Rota regulations).
Federal law
The CNMI is part of the United States for the purposes of the main federal gambling statutes. The Wire Act defines “State” to include “a commonwealth, territory or possession of the United States” (18 U.S.C. § 1084). It makes it an offence for a person in the business of betting to knowingly use wire communications to transmit bets or betting information across state or national lines. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) uses a similar definition and restricts payments for internet bets that are unlawful where they are made. Its intrastate exception covers only bets made within one jurisdiction and expressly authorised by its law, with age and location checks (31 U.S.C. § 5362).
Regulator and licensing model
The CNMI does not have a single gambling regulator. Each sector has its own body:
- Saipan casino: the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) until 2025. Its functions are now contested, as explained below.
- Lottery: the Commonwealth Lottery Commission, which supervises the public lottery and, under Public Law 18-20, video lottery terminals.
- Electronic gaming machines on Saipan: under emergency regulations implementing Public Law 18-30, at most 1,000 machine licences may be issued each year, with no more than 100 per facility (Saipan Tribune).
- Tinian: the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission.
- Rota: the Rota Casino Gaming Commission.
The Saipan model is an exclusive licence: one operator with a statutory monopoly, which here means the sole legal right to run a casino on the island. The arrangement has worked poorly. According to the CCC, the licensee did not pay the annual regulatory fee of US$3.15 million due on 1 October 2020 or the annual licence fees for FY2020 and FY2021. The Commission suspended gaming operations in 2021 and imposed a fine that its report gives as about US$6.6 million. When the licensee filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands on 19 April 2024, it reported debts of US$165.8 million, including US$79.63 million in unpaid licence and regulatory fees (Islands Business). The filing again stalled the Commission’s revocation proceedings, on which no final decision had been issued.
Before that, the federal courts had confirmed the Commission’s right to pursue revocation. In June 2023 the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a District Court order that had stopped the revocation proceedings and sent the dispute to arbitration. It held that revocation proceedings fall outside the licence agreement’s dispute clause (Ninth Circuit, No. 22-16630). In October 2023 the District Court awarded the Commission US$94,068.15 from the licensee’s bond for wrongful enjoinment (D. N. Mar. I., No. 1:22-cv-00007).
In August 2025 a newly formed investment company bought the licensee’s Saipan assets out of bankruptcy for US$12.95 million. The purchase included the unfinished hotel, a land leasehold and an option to acquire the casino licence (Inside Asian Gaming). In August 2025 the CCC told a House committee that it was vetting the buyer for a licence transfer and needed about nine months (House committee report). As of the latest reports we found, there was no published decision on whether the suspended licence would be transferred or reinstated, and the casino remained closed.
Online gambling: what is permitted and how it is enforced
No Commonwealth statute creates a licensing scheme for online casino games open to the whole CNMI. Public Law 18-56 does not provide for internet gaming as such. The licence is tied to a physical resort on Saipan (Public Law 18-56). Outside the § 3156 exemptions, conducting casino-type games as a business remains an offence.
The main exception is Tinian. Tinian Local Law 24-03 amended Tinian Local Law 21-09, which had already authorised the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission to issue internet gaming licences, and created a dollar-pegged “Tinian Stable Token” for payments. Under the 2025 law:
- the Commission may grant up to 11 internet gaming licences, each for up to 20 years and not transferable;
- each licensee must operate a 200-unit hotel on Tinian, which may be built in phases of 100 units;
- the application fee is at least US$5,000 and the annual licence fee is US$20,000;
- operators must use age verification and geolocation software that limits play to the Second Senatorial District (Tinian and Aguiguan) and to jurisdictions where internet gaming is legal;
- all play must run through deposit accounts of players whose age and location have been verified, and internet gaming revenue tax may not be waived.
Governor Arnold I. Palacios vetoed the bill on 11 April 2025 on the Attorney General’s advice that it was “not legally sufficient”. The Attorney General said internet gaming is not an exclusively local matter and that the bill lacked robust verification, sanctions and adequate fees. The Senate overrode the veto by 7 votes to 1 on 9 May 2025, and the House by 14 to 2 on 15 May 2025. The law took effect on 19 May 2025 (TLL 24-03 legislative record; Marianas Variety). We found no court test of its validity, which sits uneasily with Palacios v. Yumul. In January 2026 the Tinian delegation passed a bill suspending commissioners’ pay because the closed casinos were no longer paying licence fees (Inside Asian Gaming). We found no report of any internet gaming licence being issued.
We found no CNMI blocklist of gambling websites, no ISP blocking or payment-blocking regime and no gambling-specific advertising code. Enforcement against offshore operators would rest largely on federal law.
Position of players
The position of individuals who play at offshore online casinos is not clearly settled by the sources we reviewed. Section 3155 is aimed mainly at those who conduct games “as a business”, but its second clause also refers to playing or betting at or against prohibited games. Read broadly, it could reach players, and a knowing and wilful violation is a misdemeanour under § 3159 (6 CMC § 3155). We found no reported prosecution of a CNMI resident for gambling online, and no official guidance addressed to players.
A player who uses an unlicensed offshore site has no local regulator to turn to if winnings are withheld. Patrons of licensed casinos are exempt from the gambling prohibition, and under Public Law 21-38 the CCC had sole jurisdiction over disputes between Saipan casino patrons and the operator (CCC FY2021 report).
Taxation
Gambling revenue in the CNMI comes mainly from fixed fees rather than a single gaming tax:
- Saipan casino: the US$15 million annual licence fee and the regulatory fee of about US$3 million, which has risen to US$3.15 million. Public Law 18-56 also allows an offset of 100% of income tax on net gaming revenue taxable income up to US$15 million (Public Law 18-56).
- Electronic gaming machines: the greater of US$2,500 or 15% of net gaming revenue per machine under Public Law 18-30. In addition, Saipan Local Law 22-6 (2021), as amended in 2022, imposes a local fee of US$2,000 per machine a year for poker amusement machines, electronic gaming machines and electronic table games in the Third Senatorial District (10 CMC § 3841).
- Rota: the Rota regulations define the Rota Gaming Tax as ten percent of gross gaming revenue (Rota regulations).
- Tinian internet gaming: an annual licence fee of US$20,000 and an internet gaming revenue tax whose rate is not stated in Tinian Local Law 24-03.
For individuals, the CNMI administers its own income tax system. According to the IRS, bona fide residents of the CNMI generally file with the CNMI tax authority rather than the IRS. We did not find CNMI guidance dealing specifically with gambling winnings. Players should consult the Department of Finance’s Division of Revenue and Taxation.
Consumer protection and responsible gambling
The CNMI has no Commonwealth-wide self-exclusion register and no statutory gambling-harm agency comparable to those in larger jurisdictions. Protections are mostly tied to licensed venues. Public Law 18-56 bars under-21s from casino gaming areas, and the CCC described its role as including anti-money-laundering monitoring under Title 31 of the US Code and helping to implement responsible gaming programmes (CCC FY2021 report). The Tinian internet gaming law requires age and location verification but contains no specific responsible-gambling or self-exclusion provisions (TLL 24-03).
Residents can use the US National Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), run by the National Council on Problem Gambling. Its network covers all 50 states and the US territories, with calls, texts and chat available 24 hours a day (NCPG). General guidance is available in our responsible gambling guide.
Recent and upcoming developments
- Executive Order 2025-002 (May 2025). On 30 May 2025 Governor Palacios issued an order abolishing the CCC and transferring its functions. Such orders take effect after 60 days unless both houses disapprove them. The Senate rejected it by 6 votes to 2, but the House did not act within the deadline (Marianas Variety). The Lottery Commission reports that casino supervision has passed to it and that it asked the former CCC to transfer property on 1 October 2025 (CLC FY2025 report).
- House Bill 24-37 (2025). Introduced on 14 July 2025, the bill would have suspended the CCC, given its functions to the Lottery Commission on an interim basis and created a Division of Gaming in the Department of Finance. On 21 August 2025 the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee found that the executive order exceeded the governor’s constitutional reorganisation power. It recommended shelving the bill pending a revised version (Standing Committee Report).
- Multi-licence casino bill (late 2025). Governor David M. Apatang’s administration proposed amending Public Law 18-56 to allow multiple non-exclusive casino licences. It would cut the annual licence fee from US$15 million to US$1 million, set a US$500,000 application fee, cut the regulatory fee to US$1 million and add a gross revenue tax of up to 15%; it also mentions online gaming (Marianas Variety; Marianas Variety). Pre-filed in the House as House Bill 24-79 and heard by the Senate Gaming Committee on 11 December 2025, it had not been enacted according to the most recent reports we found. Officials indicated that the CCC could be restored if the bill passes (Marianas Variety).
- Tinian (2025–2026). Tinian Local Law 24-03 is in force, but no licensed internet operator has been reported, and the island’s land-based casinos are closed.
Casino listings for players in the Northern Mariana Islands
The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that an operator is licensed in the Northern Mariana Islands. No regulator in the CNMI publishes a register of licensed online casinos, and outside the contested Tinian scheme, offering online casino games to people in the CNMI has no licensing basis under Commonwealth law. Federal law also restricts unlawful internet gambling. The listings must not be read as an indication that playing is lawful. See 6 CMC § 3155 and Tinian Local Law 24-03.
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Sources and further reading
- Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Legislature, Public Law 18-56, Commonwealth Casino Act (2014).
- CNMI Law Revision Commission, 6 CMC § 3155, Gambling Activities Prohibited (accessed 13 October 2026).
- CNMI Law Revision Commission, 6 CMC § 3156, Exemptions: General Exemptions (accessed 13 October 2026).
- CNMI Law Revision Commission, 6 CMC § 3159, Criminal Penalties (accessed 13 October 2026).
- CNMI Law Revision Commission, 6 CMC § 3153, Exemption from Federal Law (accessed 13 October 2026).
- CNMI Law Revision Commission, 10 CMC § 3841, Local license fee(s) for electronic gaming devices (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Supreme Court of the CNMI, Palacios v. Yumul, 2012 MP 12 (2012).
- Tinian and Aguiguan Legislative Delegation, Tinian Local Law No. 24-03 (S.L.B. 24-1, D1), with veto message and Attorney General review (2025).
- Rota Casino Gaming Commission, Title 160-20.1, Rules and Regulations (2024).
- Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission, FY 2022 Citizen-Centric Report (2022).
- Commonwealth Casino Commission, FY 2021 Citizen-Centric Report (2021).
- Commonwealth Lottery Commission, FY 2025 Citizen-Centric Report (2026).
- House of Representatives, 24th CNMI Legislature, Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations, Standing Committee Report on H.B. 24-37 (2025).
- US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Memorandum disposition, appeal No. 22-16630 (Commonwealth Casino Commission) (2023).
- US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, Decision and order, Civil Case No. 1:22-cv-00007 (2023).
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, 18 U.S.C. § 1084 (Wire Act) (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, 31 U.S.C. § 5362 (UIGEA definitions) (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Internal Revenue Service, Publication 570, Tax Guide for Individuals With Income From U.S. Territories (2025).
- National Council on Problem Gambling, About the National Problem Gambling Helpline (accessed 13 October 2026).
- Marianas Variety, House inaction clears path for EO abolishing casino commission (2025).
- Marianas Variety, Senate to open public hearing on multi-license casino plan (2025).
- Marianas Variety, Rep. Yumul: Community input key to casino legislation (2025).
- Marianas Variety, TLL 23-3 legalizes online gaming on Tinian, establishes Tinian Stable Token (2025).
- Marianas Variety, Administration considers restoring Casino Commission if gaming law is amended (2025).
- Islands Business, Saipan casino buried in $165m debt but hoping to regroup and resume business (2024).
- Inside Asian Gaming, 10 years ago: a Macau-style casino in the US (2026).
- Inside Asian Gaming, Tinian suspends payments to members of gaming commission on lack of funds (2026).
- Saipan Tribune, 1,000 electronic game licenses annually (2014).
