Imperial Pacific International (IPI) may be close to a settlement with the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) over the suspension of its monopoly license to operate a casino on Saipan.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands has granted IPI four delays in the form of temporary restraining orders for the CCC’s planned meeting to revoke IPI’s license. It did so after both parties reportedly “made significant progress towards settlement and require additional time to finalize the terms of the agreement in principle.”
The license was suspended in May after the casino company failed to pay a $15.5 million casino license fee, a $3.1 million regulatory fee and a $6.6 million fine to lift the suspension.
In recent weeks, IPI has said it expects to get financing for $150 million that will let it pay its outstanding fines and settle other claims.
Tina Sablan, a member of the Commonwealth House of Representatives, is skeptical that IPI will be able to manage that. She told Asia Gaming Brief, “This isn’t the first time that IPI has said financing is imminent. We’ve heard this before and we’ve even actually heard that exact amount before,” she said. “It was a couple of years ago when IPI was telling the legislature that they expected $150 million financing to suddenly materialize and then they’d be able to restart and complete the project. Since the beginning of this whole project, it’s been this litany of lies.”
