We’re looking at the temporary facility generating around US$250-300m EBITDA per year right now, which is from a temporary facility that doesn’t offer guest rooms. We’re achieving that from 42 tables and 106 slots, though in reality we’re doing the rolling $300m EBITDA from 10-15 VIP tables, having spent just $25m creating the facility.
(know your customer), any mainland Chinese person has to give their passport information before they come to the island; anyone playing in our VIP rooms is not allowed to play unless we know who they are. We fall under the US federal government umbrella. We also follow the proper labour laws, the hiring practices, the posting of jobs, and we hire US citizens first.
Te temporary facility opened in July 2015, which was the soft opening before the official opening in November.
We had the grand opening in November, whereby we publicly came out with our rolling numbers. We saw US$1.6bn in November, $1.5bn in December, 2.2bn in January and it’s been 2bn each month, until April’s $3.2bn and $2.6bn in May. Our plan was to open and achieve US$1bn - 1.2bn per month - which I have to admit to thinking was an ambitious goal, since we were opening up a new jurisdiction on a Pacific island, in a temporary facility with 42 tables (32 mass tables, six premium mass tables, seven private junkets rooms - even though there were no junkets yet - and 106 slots). But then we started rolling US$2-3bn a month. It’s now six months in and we’re still doing an average of $2bn a month because the word-of-mouth has been so strong. We opened up with around 50-60 VIPs per month and now we’re up to 100 per month. Tey are just loving our facility and Saipan.
P32 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE /
247.COM
Why do you think Saipan has the potential to become the next tourism hot-spot?
Our goal as we move forward and open up additional phases and our multiple properties is to drive tourism on the island. I can see right now with the temporary facility that we have a 90/10 VIP split, with all of those players from mainland China. Tourism on the island is always going to be limited when you only have 2,800 hotel rooms, and those rooms are always full. HK Airlines have already started their direct flights from Hong Kong to Saipan in the beginning of July, and more airlines are setting up direct lines soon. At the moment there are no rooms, so we’ve nowhere to put more people. Te good thing is, as we open the Grand Mariana, we will add 374 suites; the two other companies on the island are opening an additional 700 rooms, which in total we will add 1,000+ rooms next year.
We plan to open the casino block around Chinese New Year in 2017. As the casino block opens, the casino tower continues to be built, with the 374 rooms to be completed by the end of the first quarter 2017. As I mentioned, the mass is already visiting the island. Tose 300,000 tourist visitors are already visiting our temporary facility, there are 1,000-1,500 people visiting DFS every day; they are shopping, playing in the casino and eating at the restaurants. Our goal is to be 70/30, VIP to Mass. Saipan will
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60