The owner of the Tinian Dynasty casino in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas obtained a temporary restraining order to prevent authorities in Saipan from awarding the island’s first and only casino license, claiming its rival for the license “illegally” provided benefits to Saipan lawmakers.
Hong Kong-based Marianas Stars Entertainment, which bought the Tinian island casino last year and is bidding for the casino on neighboring Saipan, says Hong Kong-based Best Sunshine International, which also is bidding for the license, provided the unspecified benefits to at least four Saipan lawmakers to win their support for the casino legalization bill that was passed earlier this year.
Casinos are a controversial issue on Saipan, the largest island of the Western Pacific archipelago, and legalization attempts were defeated on several previous occasions, mostly in the Saipan Senate, where the struggling Tinian Dynasty’s previous owners were successful at lobbying against them.
A flagging economy and a government fiscal crisis swayed lawmakers to change their views this year, and the new law envisions a destination gaming resort requiring a minimum US$2 billion investment. Bidders are required to pay a non-refundable application fee of $1 million and deposit a refundable $30 million into a government escrow account. Only Marianas Stars and Best Sunshine submitted bids.
Marianas Stars says the Commonwealth Lottery Commission, which is charged with awarding the license, has refused to investigate the benefits allegations. Its petition for the restraining order claims that Best Sunshine “was apparently preordained to have the casino license issued to it even before the casino law was passed”.
The restraining order was set to last until June 29 and prevented Gov. Eloy S. Inos, the commonwealth government, the Lottery Commission and the finance secretary from either denying or approving the license.
