{"id":33069,"date":"2022-08-30T05:02:56","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T08:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=33069"},"modified":"2026-04-23T05:23:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:23:48","slug":"ccc-close-to-running-out-of-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/ccc-close-to-running-out-of-funds","title":{"rendered":"CCC close to running out of funds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Commonwealth Casino Commissioner Martin Mendiola says the regulator’s budget will soon be zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Northern Mariana Islands.- The Commonwealth Casino Commission<\/strong> (CCC) is rapidly running out of funds due to the uncertain future of its one licensee, Imperial Pacific International<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commonwealth Casino Commissioner Martin Mendiola<\/strong> said the regulator is “at the finish line of its budget” and that the commission is \u201cthe real victim\u201d of\u00a0the federal court’s temporary restraining order\u00a0that prevents it from pursuing the revocation of Imperial Pacific International’s exclusive casino licence for its failure to meet its obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Mariana’s Variety, from an original team of 50, the regulator is down to\u00a0just 10 employees<\/strong>. The commission is reported to have less than $300,000, which may last only until November.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commission chairman\u00a0Edward C. Deleon Guerrero<\/strong>\u00a0said the CCC’s dire financial situation “is something I feel I have to bring to the attention of the Office of the Governor.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that IPI owed licence fee payments from August 12, 2020, to August 12, 2022, totalling $46.5m. He added that if IPI does not pay $3.15m in regulatory fees by October 1, it will owe an additional $9.4m in commissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, IPI said it had signed\u00a0a memorandum of agreement<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0South Korea\u2019s IH Group<\/strong>\u00a0to secure funding to help it reopen its casino in Garapan and pay some of its obligations, including payroll and outstanding payables to vendors. However, so far there has been no news regarding the agreement between the companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commonwealth Casino Commissioner Martin Mendiola says the regulator’s budget will soon be zero.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26855,"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) faces imminent insolvency, with its budget nearing zero due to Imperial Pacific International's (IPI) failure to pay over $46.5 million in license and regulatory fees. A federal court order currently prevents the CCC from revoking IPI's exclusive casino license, exacerbating the regulator's financial distress and operational capacity. This situation highlights significant governance and compliance challenges within the Northern Mariana Islands' iGaming and land-based casino sector.","focusai_entities":"Commonwealth Casino Commission, Martin Mendiola, Imperial Pacific International, Edward C. Deleon Guerrero, Office of the Governor, IH Group","focusai_location":"Northern Mariana Islands, Garapan, South Korea","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.85), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"CCC Funding Outlook","query":"What specific legislative or executive actions are being considered by the Office of the Governor to ensure the Commonwealth Casino Commission's immediate and long-term financial viability, given its critical role in market oversight?"},{"label":"IPI License Status","query":"What is the legal basis and expected duration of the federal court's temporary restraining order preventing the CCC from revoking Imperial Pacific International's license, and what are the potential pathways for resolution?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[21613,24134],"class_list":["post-33069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","tag-commonwealth-casino-commission","tag-imperial-pacific-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33069","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=33069"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33077,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33069\/revisions\/33077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}