Imperial Pacific CEO says Saipan casino will open by January's end 2017

Mark A. Brown has more than 30 years’ experience in the industry, and is distinguished in the world as one of the veterans in casino development. He has been a pioneer in gaming development in Macau, the US and South East Asia. Brown previously opened one of the world’s biggest casinos, the Venetian Macau, and had multiple top positions as the President / CEO / COO in Sands Macau, Wynn Las Vegas, Trump Entertainment Resorts and NagaWorld.

Why have you chosen to develop a new integrated resort in Saipan?

The Group has been looking for a suitable place to develop a brand new, world-class integrated resort for several years. This place has to be easily accessible and offer something that is unprecedented by other existing Asian gaming jurisdictions. Let me tell you a story: it was a shame that I have previously not heard of a place called Saipan. Then one day I was flown into Saipan by private jet and was shown this sparkly gem-like island, surrounded by surreal mountains in the middle of the Pacific. I was then asked if I want to try leading the opening of a new resort here. I said to myself: why not? I know this is the next place that I want to have an impact on.
Saipan does not only captivate me by its natural beauty; as a businessman, I am also thrilled by its business-friendly environment, particularly for our business as a land-based gaming operator. Think about that, most gaming jurisdictions have operated on an oligopoly basis, whereas Imperial Pacific was granted with a 40-year exclusive license in Saipan.

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Macau has six concessionaires sharing one pot of revenue whereas we have the entire Saipan pot

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There is also no gaming tax as opposed to close to 40% gaming tax in Macau. The island is easily accessible with a short flight of 4-5 hours from countries such as China, Japan and Korea, making it the ideal destination for an all-inclusive, one of a kind experience. More and more airlines have announced direct flights to Saipan. These days we have direct flights from major cities in China such as Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, from Korea and from Japan. It all depends on what guesst are looking for in their holiday.

Given that Chinese VIPs consist of an important part of Imperial Pacific’s current revenue structure, why do you think these Chinese VIPs will choose to gamble in Saipan and not in Macau?

Saipan is on US soil which gives Chinese tourists visa-upon arrival. It also gives them a sense of safety. It is much easier for the Chinese to come visit Saipan than Macau or other major gaming cities.

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As we have lower gaming taxes in Saipan compared to Macau, it means that we have more to spare on rebates to attract them

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Aside from this, more importantly, it’s up to the gaming patron himself to decide where he would like to spend his holiday.

Imagine a factory owner from Shanghai who wants to get away from his working routine to relax, have fun and have some excitement from gambling. He has two choices – flying in to Macau or flying in to Saipan. If he chose the conventional way of going to the gaming capital Macau, he would need to apply for visa in advance of his travel. Then he could fly 3 hours to this metropolitan gaming capital where he would arrive in a concrete forest, beaches with brown water and smog in the sky. Alternatively, he could choose to fly 4 hours straight to the US territory of Saipan. No prior arrangement of visa is needed. In Saipan, he could have unlimited sunshine, blue skies, sapphire-waters, the same if not better level of luxury services availabe to serve his and his family’s holiday needs. The Guinness Book of World Records says that Saipan has the most equitable weather in the world all year round. Where do you think he would choose to go?

When do you expect the Imperial Pacific Resort to be completed?

We are in the progress of completing the initial gaming facility as stated on our licensee contract, the Imperial Pacific Resort in Saipan. In 2014, we were awarded an exclusive 40-year gaming license. We opened the temporary training facilities in less than a year’s time. It will run until the permanent casino of the Imperial Pacific Resort starts operation.
The Imperial Pacific Resort is only the initial gaming facility that Imperial Pacific has planned to build in the city center.

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We are planning to open the casino part around Chinese New Year in 2017, while the rest of the Resort is to be opened by mid-2017

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By then we will have 350+ rooms, 200+ tables and around 400 slots.

What are your views on the recent downturn of the Macau gaming industry? Does this represent an opportunity for Saipan?

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I can see that there are opportunities that are harder to be tapped by Macau gaming operators

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There are certain constraints in place, things that they're not allowed to do. For example, gamblers can't smoke directly at the tables while they are playing in the mass gaming floors in Macau. In Saipan there are no such rules. For a gaming patron who smokes, this is a dividing point. Another example I can tell you is that, in Macau, the six gaming operators fight to impress the government for the limited supply of tables; in Saipan, we can add as many tables as we want according to our business needs. There are no table caps in Saipan. The Saipan government has been very supportive to the development of the economy there.

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In this business, it’s the tables that are driving the money

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For us in particular, it’s the VIP tables that have helped us to roll the billions of dollars of rolling chip volume.

Last month, in September 2016, Imperial Pacific achieved its highest rolling chip volume ever, only after 11 months after our opening ceremony of the temporary casino in November 2015. We have made it to US$3.9 billion of rolling chip volume with just 16 VIP tables. We have VIP guests coming back to Saipan again and again because they like what the island has to offer – beautiful sun, sea, sand and our luxurious services. Bear in mind that this number is achieved only by our temporary casino, a casino which we have managed to pull up in a couple of months’ time immediately after the consent from the Saipan government that we could build a temporary training facility. Although I do not expect this phenomenal growth to continue limitlessly, imagine what will happen when the permanent casino is up and ready.

Macau is the world gaming capital in terms of gross gaming revenue. Vegas has been the name synonymous with high-end casinos.

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We don’t need to be another Macau or Vegas. We are Saipan

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We have everything to offer guests such as convenience, ease-of-access, natural tourism resources and attentive services that neither these gaming capitals could match. We don’t directly compete with Macau for businesses. We can be VIP guests’ second stop. Macau will always be the king.

What is the biggest challenge you're seeing for Saipan to become a number one destination?

Saipan is naturally gifted with beautiful tourism resources; in order to attract tourists to visit Saipan, what we really need is infrastructure. To be exact, tourism infrastructure. We have a vision to turn Saipan into a world-class limelight destination, however, infrastructure has to catch up. To be very frank with you, one of the biggest problem, a problem that is unsolvable in the short-term, is the problem of not having enough hotel rooms on the island. The hotel rooms in Saipan are always 100% occupied. When I first arrived Saipan, I had to change hotels for 3 times, not because I particularly like to move around in the middle of a stay; but because of the hotels were fully booked for the nights ahead. If I want to invite gaming patrons to fly 4-5 hours into Saipan from China with their families, I could not ask them to play in the casino and then tell them, “Thanks for coming to Saipan, but, apologies our hotel is full tonight.” This is definitely the last thing in the world that I would like to say to a guest! To be able to grow our business, we need hotel rooms. We need to be a good host and have nice rooms to host them. So as much as we would like our guests to have fun on our gaming tables, our vision is to provide them with a holistic experience, an experience that is memorable and stay with them for many years so that they will want to come back in the future.

Luckily the solution to partly mitigate this biggest problem we are facing is to complete the hotel of the initial phase of the permanent casino in Garapan soon. This will add hotel room inventory for the island. As I said to you previously, we are going to add 350+ rooms to Saipan’s hotel stock. Our eyes are on the future, so more rooms will be built in the coming phases. In the distant future, we have plans to build thousands of more hotel rooms down the line.

What are the non-gaming elements you intend to bring? What can we expect to see from Imperial Pacific in the future?

The Imperial Pacific Resort is only our first step of building a permanent integrated resort in Saipan. Once our permanent casino is up and running, the temporary gaming facility currently located in the DFS mall would cease operations. Gaming would move into the permanent building.

In terms of non-gaming attractions, I guess the island itself is the biggest non-gaming attraction for any guests coming to Imperial Pacific. Diving, snorkeling, Other than that we are bringing in brand-new hotel rooms, villas, never-been-to-Asia’s Michelin starred chefs’ restaurants. Imperial Pacific has teamed up with Brian McKenna, a Michelin star chef and restauranteur. Another 3-star Italian and 3-star French restaurant have also committed to open their restaurants in the Imperial Pacific Resort.

In the future phases, we may even bring theaters, water parks, shows, and shopping street to Saipan. A truly integrated resort should contain elements that can capture the spirit of guests for a very long time with many options for entertainment. A big integrated resort cannot be just built in a day, just as Rome wasn’t built a day. Naturally a project of such scale requires development in many phases. Our priority now is to finish the initial gaming facility, the permanent casino Imperial Pacific Resort, and then we will move onto future phases. In the future phases we will work with strategic partners on an asset-light basis.

How do you feel about Saipan’s future developments?

My personal view of the future for Saipan and for Imperial Pacific is that it will be brighter than ever. Given the rise of Chinese middle class, their desire for high-end international travel, the new generation of wealth in China and around Asia, Saipan is at the set of becoming the next Maldives, where people fly in for island holidays; Saipan is also becoming the second-stop after Macau, where VIP gamblers crave for a luxurious 6-star gaming experience. I am very optimistic about the future of Saipan and the Asian gaming industry.

 For more information, visit https://bestsunshine.com/en/imperial-pacific-resort