In just six months, VIP gaming operations at Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd.’s temporary casino in Saipan have reached a saturation point and will not grow until the company’s 0 million Grand Mariana Casino and Hotel Resort, now under construction in Garapan, opens in the first quarter of 2017, officials said recently. Imperial Pacific’s million temporary casino began operations in November with 16 VIP gaming tables and 32 public tables, plus 209 slots and electronic table games.
Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific said the saturation estimate included the temporary casino’s unaudited VIP table games rolling for the past six months, the facility’s “actual operational scale and service reception capability” and the installed hotel capacity in Saipan.
In an April filing, company officials said the temporary casino brought in gross gaming revenues of $186 million for the first three months of the year. It indicated VIP table games rolling chip turnover reached $6.1 billion, or $2 billion monthly, during the first quarter of 2016—a 30 per cent increase over the $1.6 billion earned per month in November and December in 2015. In additional filing, the company said unaudited VIP table games rolling chip turnover increased 69 per cent month-on-month to from $1.8 billion to $3.2 billion in April. “Since November 2015, approximately 200 top-tier high rollers have visited our temporary casino in Saipan, many of whom have become return customers,” officials said.
Last month the Commonwealth Casino Commission, which regulates gaming on Saipan, authorized Imperial Pacific to revise its rebate rate to 1.8 percent from 1.3 percent. The company said the drop was needed to offer better incentives than those provided by Macau and the Philippines casinos to VIP players. In Macau, rebate rates typically paid as commissions to junket operators, top off at 1.25 percent of the rolling chip turnover.
The new Grand Mariana casino resort will offer 350 hotel rooms, 15 villas, more than 200 gaming tables and 400 slot machines, dining options, a beach club and nightclub.
