AUSTRALASIA 42
CNMI
IPI gets project extension as profit/revenue plunge Imperial Pacific’s luxury casino project on the island of Saipan continues to struggle, with early excitement generated by staggering levels of VIP turnover fizzling amidst customer debts and construction delays.
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PI opened its new casino last year, moving operations from a temporary facility that had been operating out of a shopping mall. From a handful of tables in the mall, the company was averaging monthly VIP rolling volume of more than $2 billion. At the end of its first full year of operation in 2016, it reported $32.36 billion in rolling volume, more than the $28.8 billion reported by Sands China’s flagship Venetian Macau the same year.
Asia Gaming Briefings | October 2018
The Hong Kong-listed company was counting on the draw of an idyllic South Sea location, visa-free access for Mainland Chinese and relative proximity by air to Japan, Korea, China and Hong Kong to pull in the big spenders. And for a while, it appeared to be succeeding. However, a series of factors, including a devastating typhoon and a shortage of workers, led to construction delays. Its hotel was scheduled to have opened in the second half of last year, though was still only about
69 percent complete as of the revised deadline of end-August. It has now been granted an extension to complete the initial gaming facility to no later than February 28, 2021. IPI blamed the “drastic reduction and non-availability of sufficient skilled and qualified construction labor, locally in Saipan and mainland USA.” In return for the extension, IPI has agreed to submit a Construction Milestone Schedule, a list of pending tasks and projected
