Casino puts off soft opening
Imperial Pacific Resort won’t be able to open its casino in time for this year’s Lunar New Year, but it remains on track to begin operations in the first quarter of 2017, according to a statement sent to Saipan Tribune last week.
In a voluntary announcement filed with the Hong Kong Stocks Exchange, Imperial Pacific International Holdings, Ltd. executive director Cai Lingli said that they wouldn’t be able to pursue the soft opening that was originally scheduled on Jan. 28, Saturday, the Year of the Fire Rooster, according to the Asian Zodiac calendar.
“The casino of the Imperial Pacific Resort will commence soft opening in the first quarter of 2017,” said Cai in the statement.
The casino was reportedly set to open in the last week of March this year.
No further details of the soft opening were available.
Construction of the casino resort, however, is running according to plan, Cai said in the announcement. “The construction of the Group’s Imperial Pacific Resort in Garapan, Saipan had been progressing smoothly with over 2,000 [laborers] working around-the-clock to ensure early completion.”
Imperial Pacific Resort, once completed, will have 400 hotel rooms while its casino will house more than 200 gaming tables and over 300 slot machines.
Gee! It’s gone from “soft” opening to “very soft” opening. Is the engine sputtering now?
Still waiting for the revised archaeology report.
It won’t open, however softly, before the summer.
A quick drive-by at the site would give it away that the casino will not be completed by the end of first quarter 2017. It doesn’t appear that it will be completed by the end of June 2017 either. In the meantime, what will BSI do when its lease with DFS expires in April 2017? Will it shut down its temporary live casino or negotiate a short term lease with DFS?
Did you see 2000 workers on site? I counted one hundred fifty at most when they all left for lunch and for dinner. Maybe 1850 lives inside the basement. Sunshine can lie to people in Hong Kong and overseas, but they cannot lie to us residents. The casino will however open on the April Fools day because DPW will give waivers for safety, CUC will disconnect water to everyone else except the casino, OSHA will look the other way, BECQ will pretend that the sewer line is not causing backflows to other hotels and business in the area, DOL dont care if the workers are illegal or not, fake whales given credit to play need not pay will be given plane tickets and hotel rooms and play in the casino even though a crane could fall on their head, ten dollar coupons will attract the desperados to fill up the casino and make it look busy, and everything is again fine and dandy as envelopes get passed under the table.
Are there any photos of the casino? I am curious to see this for myself. I work in real estate & development on the mainland and I’ve seen casinos built from the ground up.