{"id":19288,"date":"2021-06-22T15:41:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T15:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=19288"},"modified":"2026-04-23T18:20:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:20:05","slug":"ccc-to-cut-staff-due-to-imperial-pacifics-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ccc-to-cut-staff-due-to-imperial-pacifics-closure","title":{"rendered":"CCC to cut staff due to Imperial Pacific’s closure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) is in an economic crisis due to Imperial Pacific International\u2019s non-payment of its licence, and itplans to lay off 22 workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- The indefinite suspension of Imperial Pacific International’s\u00a0gaming licence<\/a>\u00a0has brought economic consequences to the\u00a0Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC)<\/strong>\u00a0as the regulator depends on the annual casino licence payments.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulator has confirmed that in order to\u00a0reduce operation costs<\/strong>, it has announced 20 lay offs without cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Yeom<\/strong>, the CCC\u2019s executive director, said this represents\u00a0a 60 per cent workforce reduction<\/strong>\u00a0for CCC as some staff have already voluntarily resigned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Saipan Tribune, Yeom stated: \u201cIt is sad and unfortunate, but a decision had to be made to smartly and cost-effectively defend the Commonwealth against any present and future legal challenges.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks ago Yeom called for\u00a0more casinos in Saipan<\/a>\u00a0to increase funds. He said: \u201cIt would be better for us [if there are other casinos], but\u00a0we only have one exclusive licensee<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CCC depends on its regulatory fee <\/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 IPI to pay a penalty of US$6.6m<\/strong>, an annual casino exclusive licence fee of US$15.5m and annual casino regulatory fees of US$3.1m<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IPI has appealed against the decision<\/a>\u00a0to suspend its licence for non-payment. It wants the\u00a0Superior Court in Saipan\u00a0<\/strong>to determine whether the\u00a0Covid-19 pandemic could be considered a natural disaster\u00a0<\/strong>or force majeure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Superior Court finds in its favour,\u00a0IPI could be exempt from paying its annual licence fee<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) is in an economic crisis due to Imperial Pacific International\u2019s non-payment of its licence, and itplans to lay off 22 workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":19300,"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) is facing an economic crisis and implementing significant workforce reductions due to Imperial Pacific International's (IPI) non-payment of its exclusive casino license and regulatory fees. IPI has appealed the license suspension, arguing that the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a force majeure event, which could exempt it from its financial obligations. This situation highlights the fiscal vulnerabilities of regulators dependent on single-operator revenue streams.","focusai_entities":"Commonwealth Casino Commission, CCC, Imperial Pacific International, IPI, Andrew Yeom, Saipan Tribune, Superior Court","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, Saipan, CNMI","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.85), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"IPI's Force Majeure Claim","query":"What legal precedents exist for COVID-19 being successfully argued as a force majeure event in iGaming licensing agreements, and what are the implications for other jurisdictions' regulatory compliance frameworks?"},{"label":"Regulatory Funding Models","query":"How might the CCC's financial crisis influence other jurisdictions to re-evaluate their regulatory funding models, particularly those reliant on single-operator license fees, to ensure robust governance frameworks?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[23911,14213,23907],"class_list":["post-19288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-imperial-pacific","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19288","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=19288"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19312,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19288\/revisions\/19312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}