The Commonwealth Casino Commission has tasked Saipan casino owners to revisit contracts with their contractors and sub-contractors, in light of rumors circulating of employees working at the casino\u2019s construction site who may have \u201cquestionable immigration status.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now directing Imperial Pacific to revisit contract agreements with sub-contractors to demand that they demand all employees must be legally authorized to work,\u201d casino commission executive director Edward Deleon Guerrero said, alluding to recent reports of tourist visa abuse by businesses in the Commonwealth that seek to hire these \u201ctourists\u201d to continue or move forward with their hotel, restaurant, or construction projects.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the Saipan casino\u2019s\u2014or Best Sunshine, Ltd.\u2019s\u2014projected construction costs for their Grand Mariana casino resort in the heart of Garapan is now estimated to cost about $550 million, taking into account additional costs for sewer pipeline and traffic design and construction they will shoulder for projects nearby and outside their construction grounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cClose to $180 million\u201d has already been spent on the Saipan casino project, according to Guerrero. The casino originally raised a first batch of $100 million and then $200 million for a total of $300 million, with the $180 spent toward the casino\u2019s \u201ctemporary\u201d gaming facility in the T-Galleria mall and the construction of Grand Mariana.<\/p>\n
The casino will feature about 374 rooms, seven restaurants, among numerous slot machines and gaming tables in their casino facility. Best Sunshine currently has 815 employees, with over 65 percent local and U.S. workers and potential to expand to go to 3,500 to 4,000 employees with the Grand Mariana.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a significant amount of that $300 million still in their balance sheet,\u201d said Guerrero. \u201cThe gap or the difference to the $550 million is why we asked to them explain how that is to be raised and when. We are comfortable with what we heard,\u201d he said, adding that have asked for additional documents and also discussed the intimate financial details of funding parties in executive session during a commission meeting on Friday.<\/p>\n
Best Sunshine has provided a report on \u201cwhere they\u2019re funding sources\u201d are, and have submitted an annual report for 2014 to 2015, said Guerrero. Hong Kong-based and island-based officials met with the commission last Friday to provide and explain this documentation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe $500 million was explained in detail so we are comfortable that they are able to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are also assuming a lot of the costs associated with traffic movement in Garapan inclusive of laying of the sewage treatment pipe\u201d two miles down to a treatment plant in Sadog Tasi.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will be taking care of that,\u201d he added. \u201cOriginally, it was $500 million but now they are looking at perhaps $550 million<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom what we heard, we are confident that Imperial Pacific is in a good position financially and otherwise as earlier envisioned and as improved by CNMI regulatory agencies,\u201d said Guerrero.<\/p>\n
Timeline and earnings<\/strong><\/p>\n The casino\u2019s lease for a \u201ctemporary\u201d casino in T-Galleria is good for about 18 months, which the commission takes to mean that the Grand Mariana\u2014at least for casino gaming\u2014should be up and running on or before but not to exceed April 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether the entire facility is done, we don\u2019t know,\u201d Guerrero added. \u201cBut at least the gaming portion should be up and operating and should be out of the T-Galleria.\u201d<\/p>\n Guerrero also provided an industry standard formula\u2014without disclosing the results\u2014to assess the casino\u2019s revenue projections and how much taxes have been paid out. The formula multiplies the casino\u2019s average rolling chip volume value per month with 2.8 percent\u2014or the standard house \u201chold\u201d or share\u2014and multiplies this value with 5 percent, or the maximum percentage of business gross revenue tax, which the casino pays out.<\/p>\n As December rolling chip volume was reported to be $1.44 billion and $1.6 billion in November, the casino\u2019s tax payout would be substantial.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is what we are about to report to the government,\u201d said Guerrero, \u201cas to our projections on what this industry may be raising in the fiscal year 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n Guerrero expressed surprise at the casino\u2019s earnings \u201cfor such a small facility, with only four VIP rooms, and the fourth one only added in recent weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe volume of rolling chip activity that is $1.6 billion in November. That volume in a very small facility, where there is no hotel, where it is in a mall, is unheard of,\u201d Guerrero said. \u201cThat has been bringing some serious attention to this little island of Saipan. From what we\u2019ve been hearing from other contacts, investors are taking a second look into Imperial Pacific.<\/p>\n The Saipan casino believes this is comparable to Macau gaming on the scale it is now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Commonwealth Casino Commission has tasked Saipan casino owners to revisit contracts with their contractors…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[1311,256,4260,1091],"class_list":["post-219572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-bsi","tag-casino","tag-grand-mariana","tag-imperial-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}