Saipan Casino Accepting Junket Operator Applications

The Best Sunshine International Casino is a massive casino-resort that is currently being constructed in the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands. The overall cost of the project is estimated to be around $7 billion and the project will be completed in five phases.

Imperial Pacific International, the parent company that owns Best Sunshine managed to get a license to operate a temporary casino that opened to the public on the 26th of July 2015.

The casino has had an impressive six months since then and recently reported that its VIP clientele brought in more than $1.5 million during November 2015 and the casino wants to concentrate on this market segment in the coming months. The company will rely heavily on junket operators who are specialists in bringing over a consistent stream of these VIP gamblers.

Most of these VIP gamblers come from Mainland China and the collapse of Macau’s VIP market due to the anti-corruption campaign means that these VIP gamblers are now looking for a new place to play. Best Sunshine is currently in the process of accepting junket operator applications after the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) announced that it had finally approved guidelines and regulations for junket operators to function in Saipan.

The success of the Best Sunshine casino will be tied heavily to these junket operators and the amount of VIP traffic they are able to generate every month. A number of junket operators have been severely affected by Macau’s casino market crash and a few of them have been forced out of business. These junket operators now have a golden opportunity to tie up with Best Sunshine and develop a long term business relationship.

In a statement, Edward C Deleon Guerrero, the executive director of the CCC said

The success of Best Sunshine, or the [Tinian] Dynasty, or Alter City [Group] or any other” casino in this part of the world is “through this program, the junket. Basically, they are the travel agency going around the world to get VIPs to come to Saipan

The biggest difference in regulation between the role of junket operators in Macau and Saipan will be the level of control that the junket operators are given. In Macau, junket operators have been used to having their own VIP rooms at the casino and controlling what happens. In Saipan, this will not be the case as Best Sunshine will run the VIP room and employ the pit boss and licensed dealers at the table.