{"id":196994,"date":"2022-01-04T08:57:16","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T16:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=196994"},"modified":"2022-01-04T09:21:34","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T17:21:34","slug":"push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"Ending Imperial Pacific’s Control Over Saipan’s Casino Market Called Unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imperial Pacific International (IPI) continues to hold onto its monopoly of Saipan’s casino market through the Imperial Palace casino. It might continue, as one high-ranking official now asserts that removing that control would be unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

\"Imperial
The Imperial Palace in Saipan continues to have difficulty. Lawmakers want to allow more casino licenses through a new bill, which is now being called unconstitutional. (Image: South China Morning Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wasn’t too long ago that Andrew Yeom, the executive director of the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), wanted to see IPI’s reign come to an end. A little more than a year ago, he was pushing for the company’s casino license to be suspended<\/a>.<\/p>\n

IPI has repeatedly been able to avoid losing its grip on Saipan, and now that lawmakers are considering expanding the number of casinos there, it has done it once again. Yeom has apparently softened his stance, according to Marianas Variety<\/em>. He told lawmakers this week that the bill authorizing the additional casinos can’t move forward.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeom previously filed at least five complaints early last year against IPI as it repeatedly failed to meet its obligations with the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Now, Yeom asserts, “We cannot have a local bill trying to supersede a Commonwealth law.”<\/p>\n

IPI still owes millions of dollars to government and private entities. It was appointed a receiver last year to sell assets to cover its debts, but was able to sidestep the sale as it miraculously came up with around US$2 million<\/a> to cover one of its outstanding bills.<\/p>\n

Bills Keep Piling Up<\/h2>\n

IPI owes the government at least US$38.6 million. It didn’t pay its license fee last August, worth US$15.5 million. It also failed to pay its regulatory fee in October, which was US$3.1 million.<\/p>\n

\n

The operator also neglected to make US$20 million in contributions to the community benefit fund in 2018 and 2019. Those contributions were included in the licensing agreement it was issued to operate Imperial Palace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In addition, a judge had ordered IPI to set aside US$2 billion in capital as a type of guarantee that it would be able to make future payments. That hasn’t been done, either.<\/p>\n

IPI is still settling several outstanding bills worth a few million dollars as well. None of these financial obligations are likely to be met, as the Imperial Palace remains closed. IPI’s license was suspended in April of last year, and is still suspended. This and COVID-19 have taken the casino’s revenue to nil.<\/p>\n

Legislators Try to Dissolve a Monopoly<\/h2>\n

In November of last year, after years of dealing with IPI’s repeated issues, CNMI lawmakers tried to fix a mistake. They realized that giving IPI a monopoly was wrong and introduced Local Bill 22-26.<\/p>\n

The legislation was drafted specifically to end the operator’s control. It reads, in part, “The present situation, where the exclusive casino licensee has not been able to pay taxes and, most relevantly, cannot reliably pay the $15 million guaranteed license fee, demonstrates that it was imprudent for the Commonwealth to rely on just one industry and just one company.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The bill adds that, as a result of the oversight, and to “obtain the goal of increased stability and dependability,” the government needs to do away with its single licensee framework” and expand the market.<\/p>\n

IPI is fighting the bill and the attempts to kick it out, despite not having any money or proper leadership to keep it afloat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imperial Pacific International (IPI) continues to hold onto its monopoly of Saipan’s casino market through the Imperial Palace casino. It might continue, as one high-ranking official now asserts that removing that control would be unconstitutional. It wasn’t too long ago that Andrew Yeom, the executive director of the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), wanted to see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":196993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,33810,13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEnding Imperial Pacific's Control Over Saipan's Casino Market Called Unconstitutional - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Imperial Pacific International (IPI) continues to hold onto its monopoly of Saipan's casino market through the Imperial Palace casino. It might continue,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ending Imperial Pacific's Control Over Saipan's Casino Market Called Unconstitutional - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Imperial Pacific International (IPI) continues to hold onto its monopoly of Saipan's casino market through the Imperial Palace casino. It might continue,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-04T16:57:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-04T17:21:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Imperial-Palace-in-Saipan.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erik Gibbs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erik Gibbs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/\",\"name\":\"Ending Imperial Pacific's Control Over Saipan's Casino Market Called Unconstitutional - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Imperial-Palace-in-Saipan.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-04T16:57:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-04T17:21:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca\"},\"description\":\"Imperial Pacific International (IPI) continues to hold onto its monopoly of Saipan's casino market through the Imperial Palace casino. It might continue,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Imperial-Palace-in-Saipan.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Imperial-Palace-in-Saipan.jpeg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"The Imperial Palace in Saipan continues to have difficulty. Lawmakers want to allow more casino licenses through a new bill, which is now being called unconstitutional. (Image: South China Morning Post)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gaming Business\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gaming-business\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Ending Imperial Pacific’s Control Over Saipan’s Casino Market Called Unconstitutional\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca\",\"name\":\"Erik Gibbs\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Erik Gibbs\"},\"description\":\"Erik Gibbs covers global gaming news for Casino.org. His scope includes Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Erik has covered gaming markets in Europe and Asia for the past six years. Erik joined Casino.org in November 2021. Erik has written for numerous gambling- and a handful of industry publications has quoted casino-related media outlets over the years and. He is always excited to bring a new perspective on what's happening in the gaming space. Erik enjoys following the global gaming industry, paying particular attention to innovation and regulation. Originally from the US, Erik has spent extensive time living in various countries across the globe. He enjoys anything that has to do with the outdoors and exploration, although he readily admits that he would have no trouble spending all day fishing on a boat. He currently resides in Spain. Contact Erik at erik.gibbs@casino.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/erik-gibbs\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ending Imperial Pacific's Control Over Saipan's Casino Market Called Unconstitutional - Casino.org","description":"Imperial Pacific International (IPI) continues to hold onto its monopoly of Saipan's casino market through the Imperial Palace casino. It might continue,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ending Imperial Pacific's Control Over Saipan's Casino Market Called Unconstitutional - Casino.org","og_description":"Imperial Pacific International (IPI) continues to hold onto its monopoly of Saipan's casino market through the Imperial Palace casino. It might continue,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2022-01-04T16:57:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-04T17:21:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Imperial-Palace-in-Saipan.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Erik Gibbs","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erik Gibbs","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/","name":"Ending Imperial Pacific's Control Over Saipan's Casino Market Called Unconstitutional - Casino.org","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Imperial-Palace-in-Saipan.jpeg","datePublished":"2022-01-04T16:57:16+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-04T17:21:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca"},"description":"Imperial Pacific International (IPI) continues to hold onto its monopoly of Saipan's casino market through the Imperial Palace casino. It might continue,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Imperial-Palace-in-Saipan.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Imperial-Palace-in-Saipan.jpeg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"The Imperial Palace in Saipan continues to have difficulty. Lawmakers want to allow more casino licenses through a new bill, which is now being called unconstitutional. (Image: South China Morning Post)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/push-to-end-imperial-pacifics-control-over-saipans-casino-market-called-unconstitutional\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gaming Business","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/gaming-business\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Ending Imperial Pacific’s Control Over Saipan’s Casino Market Called Unconstitutional"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca","name":"Erik Gibbs","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png","caption":"Erik Gibbs"},"description":"Erik Gibbs covers global gaming news for Casino.org. His scope includes Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Erik has covered gaming markets in Europe and Asia for the past six years. Erik joined Casino.org in November 2021. Erik has written for numerous gambling- and a handful of industry publications has quoted casino-related media outlets over the years and. He is always excited to bring a new perspective on what's happening in the gaming space. Erik enjoys following the global gaming industry, paying particular attention to innovation and regulation. Originally from the US, Erik has spent extensive time living in various countries across the globe. He enjoys anything that has to do with the outdoors and exploration, although he readily admits that he would have no trouble spending all day fishing on a boat. He currently resides in Spain. Contact Erik at erik.gibbs@casino.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/erik-gibbs\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196994"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}