Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission executive director Lucy Blanco-Maratita said yesterday that any delay in reviewing or processing Mega Stars Overseas Ltd.\u2019s application to take over and run Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino is \u201csolely due to Mega Stars\u2019 failure to follow our directions, requests, and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blanco-Maratita said the commission needs application submittals to begin the process \u201cand Mega Stars has waited for almost one year to begin to submit the applications and documents required.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe investigation has not yet begun because Mega Stars has delayed making a proper application,\u201d Blanco-Maratita said in a statement yesterday, responding to Mega Stars chief executive officer Cario Hon\u2019s previous statements that the TCGCC executive director said were \u201cmisleading.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hon said earlier that Mega Stars \u201cdidn\u2019t apply for a license\u201d but only \u201cbought the shares of the company.\u201d Hon also expressed frustration with the review process and TCGCC\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
Blanco-Maratita, in response, said the facts are that Mega Stars has not followed all of the commission\u2019s and executive director\u2019s instructions, and has not paid all of the fees or submitted all of the application paperwork required to obtain a license \u201cdespite our repeated requests that it do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no reason for Mega Stars or its CEO to be frustrated with the TCGCC; rather it should be frustrated with its own performance. It is the TCGCC which is frustrated by Mega Stars\u2019 lack of performance and then its attempts to blame its own failures upon civil servants who are doing their job to protect the public under the law,\u201d Blanco-Maratita said.<\/p>\n
She said TCGCC needs to conduct investigations into the backgrounds of owners\/operators to ensure they are persons of integrity and responsibility, among other things.<\/p>\n
The commission is responsible for issuing licenses to casino owners and operators on Tinian.<\/p>\n
Blanco-Maratita also commented on Gov. Eloy S. Inos\u2019 recent remarks when he said he hopes that TCGCC expedite the process because he feels the process is \u201ctaking too long.\u201d<\/p>\n
The TCGCC executive director said the commission could not have begun the process without the necessary documents, applications, and fees from Mega Stars, which were just submitted on June 2.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoreover, TCGCC cannot compromise the quality of the suitability investigations by shortchanging the process\u2014suitability is crucial to the protection of the people\u2019s interest in the integrity of gaming and the grant of a casino license on Tinian,\u201d Blanco-Maratita added.<\/p>\n
TCGCC gave Gaming Integrated Services up to 120 days or four months to review Mega Stars\u2019 license application.<\/p>\n
The commission contracted Gaming Integrated Services specifically to review the Hong Kong-based company\u2019s application for a casino license related to its takeover of Tinian Dynasty.<\/p>\n
Mega Stars has so far already spent more than $40 million to keep the struggling casino resort on Tinian afloat. It is also planning to plunk down an additional $600 million to develop a new resort on Tinian\u2019s Kastiyu Plateau.<\/p>\n
Mega Stars is also part owner of Marianas Stars Entertainment Inc., one of the two applicants vying for an exclusive license to operate an integrated casino resort on Saipan with at least 2,000 guest rooms. The Lottery Commission has until June 19 to decide whether to grant that exclusive license and to whom. The other applicant is Best Sunshine International Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission executive director Lucy Blanco-Maratita said yesterday that any delay in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[256,402,959,380],"class_list":["post-38328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-casino","tag-ceo","tag-mega-stars","tag-tinian-dynasty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38328","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\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}