Imperial Pacific reports US$1.7-bln casino roll in July

Aug 04, 2016 Newsdesk Latest News, Top of the deck, World  

---

The Saipan casino operation of Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd achieved in July rolling chip volume of about US$1.74 billion, the firm said on Tuesday in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Imperial Pacific has the right to an exclusive casino licence on Saipan, the main island of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The casino licence was granted to Best Sunshine International Ltd, a subsidiary of Imperial Pacific.

The firm’s US$25-million temporary casino (pictured) began operations in November. It had a total of 16 VIP gaming tables and 32 mass tables at the end of the first quarter of 2016.

The company reported a total rolling chip volume of approximately US$15.22 billion for the seven months to July 31, an average of US$2.17 billion.

“We are dealing with the ‘VVIP’ guys that we personally know,” Mark Brown, chief executive of Best Sunshine, told the Nikkei Asian Review in an interview last week.

Play is arranged through individual relationships, Mr Brown told GGRAsia in an interview in May. He added that the VIP players were “100 percent” mainland Chinese customers.

The monthly VIP roll at the temporary casino hit a high of US$3.19 billion in April. The following month, Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific said that its VIP gaming operations in Saipan had reached saturation. “The board anticipates that the VIP gaming operations will cease to grow and have become saturated,” the firm said at the time.

The company is currently developing the Grand Mariana Casino and Hotel Resort. The US$500-million venue will feature 350 hotel rooms, 15 villas, more than 200 gaming tables, 400-plus slot machines, several restaurants, a beach club and a night club.

The Grand Mariana is expected to open in the first quarter of 2017, according to previous filings by Imperial Pacific.

---

---