CCC wants over $25m from IPI

The regulator says IPI has failed to comply with a previous commission order and now owes it $25.3m.

Northern Mariana Islands.- The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) has asked for Imperial Pacific International to be declared not to have complied with a commission order. It says the operator now owes $25.3m.

The motion was filed by Keisha Blaise, assistant attorney general, who said the casino operator had failed to comply with the Commonwealth Casino Commission Order 2021-002. According to the Saipan Tribune, the order was issued after the Superior Court affirmed previous CCC consolidated orders dated back to 2020 suspending IPI’s casino licence since for failure to fulfil duties and responsibilities in its licence agreement.

In March, the Supreme Court of the Northern Mariana Islands rejected an appeal by IPI against the suspension of its gaming licence in Saipan. 

Commission Order 2021-0022 imposed a number of penalties on IPI due to its incompliance and ordered the following: 

• The suspension of IPI’s casino licence for six months and a penalty of $100,000 within one month of the order’s effective date;
• the indefinite suspension of IPI’s casino licence until the payment of an annual licence fee of $15,502,570 in full and immediately upon the effective date of the order and penalties in the amount of $1.5m within six months of the effective date of the order;
• the suspension of IPI’s casino licence until it complies fully with Commission Order 2020-003 and pays fines of $1,500,000 within six months of the order’s implementation;
• the indefinite suspension of IPI’s casino licence to conduct gaming activities until IPI complies with Enforcement Action 2020-004 and pays a total fine of $2,000,000 within six months of the order’s issuance;
• the indefinite suspension of gaming activities until IPI complies with Enforcement Action 2020-005, immediate full payment of the casino regulatory fee of $3,150,000 and penalties of $1,500,000 within six months of the order.

Blaise says that to date, the casino operator has not filed a stay with either the Superior Court or the Supreme Court on Commission Order 2021-002 so the order is enforceable.