Best Saipan

Just in time for the Nov. 27 official launch of exclusive Saipan casino licensee Best Sunshine’s temporary casino, a bill amending the casino law cleared the Legislature last week. The bill seeks to grant casino regulators proper funding and authority, four months after the live training facility’s July 26 soft opening.

Still, it was not surprising that the House of Representatives passed the Senate version of the casino amendment bill even with a lack of clarification and justification for some of the proposed changes to the Saipan casino law. It’s just a matter of time before the same law is amended, again.

Just the same, acting governor Ralph DLG. Torres is expected to sign the latest amendment bill into law. 

Torres used to support the idea of developing pozzolan mining on Pagan, among other things, over allowing casinos on Saipan when he was still a senator but had a change of heart ahead of his candidacy for lieutenant governor. He was one of the elected officials who went on Asian trips see firsthand how casinos operate in other jurisdictions and meet with casino investors, months before Saipan’s own casino bill was drafted and introduced.

Torres may want to at least consider a line-item veto for provisions that still need to be clarified and justified, including allowing casino employees under 21 years old to possess and serve alcohol (at a time when Best Sunshine isn’t even penalized for violating anti-smoking law), and the salary increases for the regulatory casino commissioners from $40,000 on the first year of the commission’s existence to $65,000 on the second year. 

At this time, it’s supposed to be only a “live training facility” or temporary casino. The government may want to hold off on the salary increases until a casino hotel is built from the ground up, and until the industry has really proven to be stable and sustainable.  Otherwise Saipan could end up like Tinian and Rota where commissioners are not only overpaid but tend to be paid or expect full payments even when there is no casino operating. And lawmakers will end up appropriating taxpayers’ money to have these commissioners paid when the casino isn’t operating.

Attorney General Ed Manibusan, in reviewing the proposed salary increase in the bill, said the annual $65,000 salary planned for the Saipan casino commissioners is higher than the salaries of what he described as “essential” government personnel like the public defender, public auditor, and lieutenant governor and suggested that lawmakers determine whether such a salary raise is appropriate.

The lawmakers’ response? Make the casino and its agents “essential” employees so they won’t be affected by any temporary government shutdown over fiscal crisis. 

Under the Saipan casino law, casino commissioners are supposed to be paid $20 per hour for every hour of official meeting that the casino commissioners attend during the second year of the commission’s existence. 

The casino bill’s passage was followed Friday by the Department of Public Lands’ issuance of a request for proposals for some 160 hectares of lands leased by Mariana Resort & Spa in Marpi, the same prime area that Best Sunshine has long wanted to get its hands on to be able to complete its promised $7.1 billion integrated casino resort.

This came more than a year after DPL Secretary Pete A. Tenorio said in September 2014 that the department was offering Best Sunshine over 20 hectares of public lands south of Mariana Resort and suggested leasing adjacent private lands as well for its casino project. Apparently, that option didn’t pan out.

Prior to that, DPL wanted Mariana Resort, and other hotel owners whose public land leases are about to expire in a few years, to start communicating their plans whether they still want to occupy the land or not. Mariana Resort was clear it wanted to still lease the land, and DPL got that message.

But DPL has since changed its stance and issued an RFP instead for the Mariana Resort leased land. It won’t be surprising at all if DPL applies a different rule when the land lease of Hyatt Regency Saipan (which remains as the only global brand hotel in the CNMI), Fiesta Resort & Spa, or Kanoa Resort near their expiration date. It creates an unstable investment environment. 

With the way things are, who’s to say that the bids to be offered by investors such as Mariana Resort and Best Sunshine on the Marpi land lease will be considered and evaluated fairly, and that no winner has already been predetermined?