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Regulators mull armed security for casino
The Commonwealth Casino Commission discussed in a meeting the possibility of having armed security personnel for Best Sunshine International Ltd.’s casino in Garapan, although the discussions were purely exploratory.
Casino Commission executive director Edward C. Deleon Guerrero raised the topic, saying this would require training for both the casino commission staff and members of the Department of Public Safety, should they be asked to be deployed at the facility.
But Deleon Guerrero stressed that the need or deployment of armed personnel is just one of the proposals that the commission is discussing.
Commissioner Joseph Reyes said the regulators will need to discuss with the casino licensee the topic of security. He said the casino operator would know best when it comes to security.
Best Sunshine executives, meanwhile, said a casino training school on the fourth floor of the Bank of Guam building in Garapan will be “open” to the regulators.
BSI and regulators also discussed the possibility of having casino commission staff get some training from the facility.
Two hotels?
A report from GGRAsia, an online news website on the gaming industry, recently quoted Imperial Pacific International—the mother company of casino license holder Best Sunshine—as saying that Best Sunshine will construct “two hotels and a casino [in the CNMI] within a six-month period.”
GGRAsia said the announcement was given in a filing by Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd.
“It is expected that construction work for the two town hotels and a casino with a total area of approximately 130,000 square meters would commence in the third quarter of 2015 and would be complete within six months,” the GGRAsia report said, quoting the filing from the parent firm.
In an earlier Saipan Tribune report, BSI executives unveiled plans for the “Grand Mariana,” a 14-story hotel casino with 254 rooms and six villas.
A clarification from Best Sunshine on the construction of a second hotel is currently being sought as of press time.
