Finance Minister Ardwell Irion
PHILIPSBURG--A total of NAf. 12 million in casino fees and NAf. 6 million in controller fees is currently outstanding and government is looking to collect these arrears.
Finance Minister Ardwell Irion provided the figures via his cabinet in response to questions posed at the beginning of June. He reported that all casinos have an outstanding balance to government in varying amounts. He said that some of the backlog in payments to government for casino fees and controller fees date back as far as 2010.
A task force with the Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) was formalised at the beginning of 2022. The task force was to research that the outstanding amounts were indeed correct, contact the casinos and begin conversations on the terms on which monies owed would be paid.
Irion had told reporters during the live Council of Ministers press briefing on June 1 that the government of St. Maarten is looking to collect outstanding backlog debts from casinos and other establishments that have a backlog with government.
He said at the time that casinos had expressed willingness to settle their debts and that discussions with casinos on this subject had been positive. “I must say that those discussions have gone well and that the relevant casinos are willing to pay, and we are finalising this process as soon as possible,” Irion said at that time.
