IPI paid $46.8M in taxes since January

Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC paid the Commonwealth government a total of $46.8 million in gross gaming revenue taxes covering the period from January to June 2017.

According to documents obtained by Saipan Tribune, IPI has paid $46,779,388.00 in gross gaming revenue taxes. Gross gaming revenue taxes are taxes imposed on the casino based off of 5 percent of the gross gaming revenue of IPI and are due before the end of the succeeding month.

For the month of June, IPI had a gross gaming revenue of $90 million, in which the company paid the CNMI government $4.5 million. Notably, the largest amount of gross gaming revenue generated in 2017 was in January, when IPI generated a gross gaming revenue of $327 million and paid a gross gaming revenue tax amounting to $16 million.

With the transfer of the casino at T Galleria to its permanent spot at the Imperial Pacific Resort, both Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Finance Secretary Larissa Larson told Saipan Tribune that more revenue may be expected from the larger facility.

The permanent casino spot at IPR opened to the public last July 6.

According to Commonwealth Casino Commission executive director Edward Deleon Guerrero, it is too early to say if the transfer has affected the tax contributions of IPI.

“On the revenue side, [IPI] now has less slot machines but more gaming tables,” said Deleon Guerrero, adding that most of the revenue for Asian-based casinos are from table games while those based in the U.S. mainland have larger revenues from slot machines. According to him, over 90 percent of the generated revenue come from VIP table games.