{"id":18683,"date":"2021-06-04T15:12:15","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T15:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=18683"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:52:08","slug":"ccc-calls-for-more-casinos-on-saipan-to-increase-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ccc-calls-for-more-casinos-on-saipan-to-increase-funds","title":{"rendered":"CCC calls for more casinos on Saipan to increase funds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Andrew Yeom, the CCC’s executive director, said the money the commission receives is not enough to continue running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- The\u00a0Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) is running out of money<\/strong>\u00a0and the $2m it’s received from the CNMI government isn’t enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is only one casino on Saipan island, whose operator,\u00a0Imperial Pacific International<\/a>, has seen its licence suspended indefinitely for failing to comply with regulatory orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Yeom<\/strong>, the CCC’s executive director, asaid: “It would be better for us [if there are other casinos], but\u00a0we only have one exclusive licensee<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said money from the government “may be enough for personnel and operations costs<\/strong>\u00a0for now, but it won\u2019t last long.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Marianas Variety newspaper, the CCC depends on its regulatory fee\u00a0<\/strong>and receives only $1m annually in the CNMI government\u2019s fiscal year budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commonwealth Casino Commission board has ordered\u00a0IPI to pay a penalty of US$6.6m<\/strong>, an annual casino exclusive licence fee of US$15.5m and\u00a0annual casino regulatory fees of US$3.1m<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IPI has appealed against the decision<\/a> to suspend its licence. Juan T. Lizama, IPI\u2019s lawyer, filed the appeal, and the\u00a0CCC commissioners agreed to make a technical amendment<\/strong>\u00a0to the order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Yeom, the CCC’s executive director, said the money the commission receives is not enough to continue running.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) in the Northern Mariana Islands faces an acute funding crisis, with received government allocations insufficient to sustain operations. This critical situation is compounded by its sole licensee, Imperial Pacific International (IPI), having its exclusive casino license indefinitely suspended for non-compliance and appealing significant outstanding regulatory fees and penalties, directly impacting the CCC's financial viability and regulatory oversight capacity.","focusai_entities":"Andrew Yeom, Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC), Imperial Pacific International (IPI), Juan T. Lizama, CNMI government","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"CCC Funding Solutions","query":"What specific legislative or financial mechanisms are being explored by the CNMI government to ensure the Commonwealth Casino Commission's long-term operational and enforcement capabilities, given its current funding shortfall?"},{"label":"IPI License Resolution","query":"What is the projected timeline and potential outcomes for Imperial Pacific International's appeal against its license suspension and the outstanding financial penalties, and how might this impact future regulatory frameworks in the Northern Mariana Islands?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157,158],"tags":[21613,23911],"class_list":["post-18683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","category-slider-home","tag-commonwealth-casino-commission","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18683"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18692,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18683\/revisions\/18692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}