Two Chinese investment groups have submitted applications for the first casino license authorized on Saipan, one of them linked to the new owners of the casino’s prospective rival on the nearby island of Tinian.
The office of Gov. Eloy Inos identified the two as Hong Kong-based Marianas Stars Entertainment, whose shareholders include Mega Stars Overseas Ltd., which took over the struggling Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino last year, and Best Sunshine International, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed First Natural Foods Holdings, an investment holding company engaged in processing and trading food products in China and internationally.
Both companies wired proof of a US$1 million non-refundable application fee. Both also are required to pay a $30 million casino license fee by 5th May, bringing Mr Inos closer to his promise to restore the cash-strapped government’s recent 25% cut in retirement pensions.
“It’s a good day for the commonwealth,” his press secretary Angel Demapan said.
The Senate’s pro-casino President Ralph Torres said he was initially hoping that “three or four” investors would participate, “But I am happy that we have at least two,” he told the Saipan Times. “This will lead to economic activities. We can now better address the issues before us.”
The winning bidder is required to build at least 2,000 hotel rooms as part of a minimum investment of $2 billion. Mr Inos has said the development is “not just about casinos” but about construction of new hotels, expansion of infrastructure and the creation of thousands of jobs.
Pending their payment of the $30 million the applicants will be reviewed by the island’s Lottery Commission, which is authorized to grant the license. It will be the first on Saipan, the largest island of the US Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands in the western Pacific. Previously, casinos were legal only on the islands of Tinian and Rota.
Tinian Dynasty, the commonwealth’s only operating casino, battled repeated attempts to create a competing market on Saipan, where casinos are still controversial issue. The island’s voters twice rejected them, and legalization bills were defeated four times in the last four years before everything changed earlier this year when an authorization bill sailed through the Senate and House of Representatives without a committee report or public hearings.
Saipan’s skepticism was in part due to the Tinian casino, a financially troubled and less than transparent operation under its previous owners that has even attracted attention from the US government. Tinian regulators have since taken a closer look at the operation and well, prompting complaints from Mega Star that key executive appointments and approvals for various service providers, possibly including VIP junket operators out of China, are being delayed.
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