Operator News

North Marianas – Saipan’s Casino Commission turns the tables on its rivals

By Phil - 23 February 2018

The Commonwealth Casino Commission in Saipan, home to the Imperial Pacific Resort, has claimed that the reason its casino’s VIP rolling chip is so high compared to other, bigger venues, is because its big Asian rivals not reporting their true figures.

A recent damning article by Bloomberg claimed that if the figures were to be believed then Imperial Pacific’s casino represents ‘on paper at least the highest-volume gambling operation in history on a per-table basis with betting totals as much as six times greater than the top Macau casinos.’

In 2016, Imperial Pacific reported VIP volume of US$32.4bn on just 16 VIP tables at its temporary home Best Sunshine Live, including a record US$3.95bn in September 2016 much higher than the figures recorded by Macau’s largest casinos. The company no longer reports its monthly VIP roll.

Commission Executive Director Edward Deleon Guerrero, said: “The Commission notes that the rolling volume is large. The commonwealth has a low tax structure which the CCC believes dis-incentivizes the tax avoidance schemes believed to be prevalent elsewhere which keep reported volumes lower than actual. Other possible contributing factors to Saipan witnessing a very high volume of gambling operations on a per-table basis may be due to combinations of the following factors: IPI’s ownership stems from one of the largest junkets in Macau, it thus has a very strong network in the VIP market; due to strong ties to VIP patrons; China’s anti-corruption campaign has diversified VIP patrons to a new place around the Asia Pacific region such as Saipan and the visa-waiver program available for Chinese players has eased their trips into Saipan.”
“The numbers being reported are true. The Commonwealth Casino Commission has a full-time Audit and Compliance Division that reviews the daily rolling transactions. The reported gaming activities and more specifically the rolling volumes are true figures.”

Vice chair of the Commonwealth Casino Commission Joseph Reyes said: “I give ourselves a pat on the back for doing a great job. We have exerted so much effort to be on top of everything here and we have moved forward in what we need to do. I am offended by the accusations of corruption as none of us here are corrupt and I am not corrupt. I dare the writer to prove it. I challenge him to prove his accusations.”

Commissioner Alvaro Santos said their legal counsel should come up with an official response to the allegations made against the commission.

Mr. Guerrero added: “We have hired the best people and experts to help us regulate the industry and to ensure they are in compliance. If you know of anyone not doing the right thing, I urge you to report it to the FBI, the media or the police because we don’t tolerate such things. And we do not accept anything from IPI. We are looking at the junket process very meticulously. We are investigating all the current junket applicants and we are doing our due diligence. We are working with experts in Las Vegas to look at the background of these junket applicants.”