So IPI is asking to renew its casino license. Even though it can\u2019t pay the license fee. It can\u2019t even pay its employees, nor pay its other bills.<\/p>\n
What happened to that seven-billion-dollar project IPI was building on Saipan? It looks like IPI now doesn\u2019t even have a few thousand dollars for a court judgment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And the Commonwealth Casino Commission? The body that is supposed to represent the Commonwealth and negotiate the best possible terms from the casino on behalf of the Commonwealth? They\u2019re rolling over. As usual. <\/p>\n
Could it be because they know which hand feeds them?<\/p>\n
Ever seen casino commissioners in Las Vegas or Atlantic City meet with the casinos? The casino representatives are scared. They bring a team of lawyers and a stack of papers and are prepared for hard questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And on Saipan? It\u2019s the casino commissioners who are scared of the casino. It\u2019s the casino reps who dictate the agenda of the commissioners\u2019 meetings and decide what the commission will vote on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is IPI scared of CCC? No. It treats it like a joke. It treats all of us like a joke. IPI tells flat-out lies to CCC, and CCC does nothing about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
IPI breaks laws, cheats vendors, underpays employees, ignores construction standards, and even had the gall to disturb our ancestors\u2019 remains. What does CCC do? They politely stand on two paws in front of their master. What does Ralph Torres do? Rolls over for IPI like a good boy. His \u201cwarning letter\u201d to IPI? All for show. A \u201cwarning\u201d is easy. <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t fault IPI for taking advantage of the situation. There\u2019s a saying in China: \u201cIf you can take advantage, then do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
We invited the fox into the henhouse and we got exactly what everybody said we\u2019d be getting. Every expert who wasn\u2019t paid by IPI or Torres said IPI could never keep its promises and is not a legitimate operation. Every one.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like we couldn\u2019t see this coming.<\/p>\n
Every professional casino industry publication said that IPI will never build the promised casino resort, and will just keep making up excuses. Typhoon, another typhoon, dog ate homework, whatever. A legitimate business knows that unexpected things happen, and doesn\u2019t use them as excuses. Every casino professional knew that all IPI would give us was excuses.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like Ralph Torres was incapable of opening a newspaper or website. With all the electronics he buys with our public funds, he could probably read, watch, and listen to quite a few news sources all at once.<\/p>\n
And now, after years and years of broken promises, an unpaid community benefit fund, cheated businesses, stiffed employees, dead and injured construction workers, desecrated graves, indicted executives, IPI wants to renew the license? Without even paying the license fee?<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve trained IPI to expect to get whatever they request. That they are asking yet again shouldn\u2019t be surprising. The only thing surprising is our government keeps working on IPI\u2019s behalf, not ours\u2014and that some people will still vote for the same old \u201cleaders\u201d in November. <\/p>\n
Ray S. Cabrera<\/strong> So IPI is asking to renew its casino license. Even though it can\u2019t pay the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":328259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328467","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\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAs Lito, Saipan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"