Problems continue to ramp up for Imperial Pacific International as Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Governor Ralph Torres has warned the company he could remove its casino license because of its failure to pay annual fees.
Casino commissioners in CNMI say they will pursue every legal avenue to make Imperial Pacific International pay its past-due annual gaming license fee of US$15.5 million, and Torres backed them up. He says he has the authority to suspend or revoke the license if the terms of the license agreement aren’t met, including the payment of licensing fees.
CNMI is a territory of the United States, therefore subject to U.S. law.
The payment was due August 12. According to Inside Asian Gaming, IPI CEO Donald Browne wrote to the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) on August 11 requesting abatement of the license fee, citing inability to pay due to the impact of Covid-19. The casino has been closed for several months and no reopening date has been set.
Commissioners were unmoved. CCC Chairman Edward DeLeon Guerrero issued a statement saying, “IPI needs to fulfill its obligations, not only to the people of the CNMI, but also to their employees, vendors and other parties who are contracted to work with their organization.
“We are deeply disappointed in IPI’s decision to request an abatement of their annual license fee and casino regulatory fee.
In early July, Guerrero told reporters he would have revoked IPI’s casino license already if it hadn’t been for the need to follow due legal process.
Under its license agreement, IPI is required to pay a US$15 million annual license fee and contribute US$20 million a year to a community benefit fund. It has been unable to meet those obligations.
Disciplinary measures “may include monetary sanctions, license suspension, or—at the very worst—license revocation,” the CCC said.
IPI has promised to “vigorously defend” its exclusive Saipan casino license, saying in response that “all gaming activity, such as video poker machines and e-gaming, should be under the exclusive gaming license of IPI … The implementation of the casino agreement is in its sixth year. We sincerely appeal to the government to consolidate all gaming activity under one regulatory framework as promised.”
Browne noted that international flights to the western Pacific commonwealth, a U.S. protectorate, will not resume until January, and tourism to the CNMI will not begin again until May 2021. “In all likelihood IPI will remain closed, and have no income, for the next eight months,” Browne said. The appeal also called for postponement of IPI’s annual US$3 million payment to the commonwealth, because with the doors closed, “there will be no casino operations to monitor.”
