Imperial Pacific International (IPI) is actively (and slowly) working on the completion of the casino resort project Imperial Palace on the island of Saipan. As the company faces a number of legal issues over questionable practices and unsafe work conditions, it has announced one delay after another, with the resort’s completion date now moved out to 2022 (it was supposed to be 
completed last year). IPI has been trying to get the Northern Mariana Islands Lottery Commission (NMILC) to make some changes to its operations agreement for the past couple of months that would facilitate its predicament, and is apparently still waiting on responses to two of the requests. Perhaps the commission is finally getting impatient with the continued feet-dragging.
Two of the requests have been granted, so that was a good start. IPI had requested to be allowed to bring in investors for another project it wants to build in Marpi, which has yet to receive a response. The partner, or partners, would help facilitate the construction of the 2,000 hotel rooms at the resort, as well as provide additional amenities. The NMILC said yes, and also said yes to a request to have the stake of the largest shareholder in IPI dropped from 51% to 10%.
However, two other requests are still waiting for answers. The first requests a delay in completion of construction at another resort. IPI wants another 18 months to be able to finish the job and says that access to construction workers has slowed the project down. Perhaps if it took better care of its employees, it wouldn’t be behind schedule.
The other pending request is for the Lottery Commission to reduce a contractually-stipulated hiring requirement. That requirement states that 65% of the employees at the Saipan venues be U.S. citizens, and IPI wants the figure lowered to just 30%. According to IPI CEO Mark Brown, “We strive to reach 65 percent as it is a goal and best effort but…we have a lot of Asian [gamers] and we do need some Asian dealers and that’s why some of the CWs have to be from Macau.”
The NMILC acknowledged that responses are still pending and reportedly moved to discuss the issues in private. If any concessions are made, they will hopefully be accompanied by written policy guidelines to enforce IPI to step up its activities or be prepared to suffer the consequences.
