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Yanked visa waiver program would not mean sudden death for casino industry
Commonwealth Casino Commission executive director Edward C. Deleon Guerrero said Wednesday that a yanked visa-waiver program for Chinese tourists would not mean sudden death to a burgeoning casino industry, as many of the profits generated by the Saipan casino rely on high-rollers who fly in with visas.
Guerrero said that if for whatever reason the Chinese visa waiver or parole program were revoked by the federal government, “it would not affect the VIPs, because almost all of them have visas.”
Saipan’s casino operation revenues from slot machines or tales “do not come close to VIP operations,” he said.
“They are focusing more on VIP for future operations,” Guerrero said of the Saipan casino.
Guerrero, speaking to two immigration issues the CNMI faces—an impending expiration of the local contract worker program in 2019 and a visa waiver program at the complete discretion of the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security who can yank this at any time—said the CW issue “affects the workers” but the visa waiver would affect tourists.
“If we are looking at concentrating on VIP rooms and players, then the parole waiver—if that were to be revoked by Homeland Security, it would not be an automatic death like other tourism” bases, he said.
He said most of the VIPs playing at the Saipan casino, which posted a rolling VIP chip turnover volume of $6.1 billion in the first quarter of this year, already have visas.
“They are not coming in on” contract worker visas. They are coming in with a visa. These people travel all around the world. In some cases, they have their own jets,” he added.
Right now, the commission is reviewing the suitability of 12 junket operators’ applications, from such places like Korea, Macau, Singapore, Korea, and China.
These junket operators are expected to bring high rollers from around the world to play in Saipan’s casino industry, whose Macau-style junket operations will be the first of its kind on U.S. soil.
