IMPERIAL PACIFIC, SAIPAN
VIP tables, seven private rooms, and around 106 slots. Our numbers far exceeded what we thought we would do; we were planning to do a billion US dollars a month, maybe $1.2. We publicly send out our rolling numbers and you can see from what we sent out in November, we did $1.6billion, $1.5 in December, $2.2 in January and we just kept going. [In Septemeber 2016 we have hit a record high rolling volume at $3.95billion.] We are dealing with the
absolute cream of the crop of the VIPs. We have around 100 visits a month from VVIPs
CI: Is your Chinese New Year opening date still
on track? MB: We have always said we would open up the
casino block piece, which is the main lobby as you walk in and the mass gaming floor with restaurants and bars in that area. The second level has the ballroom, junket rooms, more restaurants and another bar, then a beachfront area which is modelled after the One&Only in Dubai. That has 15 villa suites, a separate lobby check in, French restaurant… We kept saying that piece will open up on New Year’s Eve, December 31st, but I kept looking back at what had been lucky dates for me. I opened the Venetian Macau August 28th 2007, a year to the day we opened the Four Seasons in 2008, and when I looked and saw that January 28th is a Saturday night and it’s Chinese New Year, I said why don’t we wait three more weeks? It’s a Chinese company after all. So that’s our plan right now. As the hotel tower continues to be built, that’s 374
suites, which will be completed in the first half of 2017. By mid-2017 we will be fully opened, but the casino will open around Chinese New Year. The Imperial Pacific Resort is a US $550m project.
CI: Are the conditions favourable to gaming in Saipan – in terms of taxes, et cetera? If conditions are favourable enough, can you compete with Macau, do you think? MB: We are able to give the junkets a good deal because there is no gaming tax, we have a monopoly license for 40 years, no restrictions on tables, no restrictions on slots, there is no smoking ban here for the next 40 years, and the convenience of there being no visa required for mainland Chinese visitors. That’s why we are working on word of mouth and getting more people to the island. We know we are not really competing with Macau, but we are competing with everyone else out there. Macau will always be the king. Our goal is to be that second stop.
CI: How is Saipan visa-free for Chinese visitors? MB: It always has been, I guess it helps the economy. There is long list of nationalities that are visa-free to visit Saipan. 500,000 visitors a year visit the island, it’s very popular as a wedding destination in Asia for one thing. It’s a tourist destination.
CI: Looking at the ongoing struggles that Baha Mar has had, have you had any worries regarding financing – or even with the idea of just getting people to the island that want to gamble? MB: Absolutely not. What is making us so
successful? The mainland Chinese customer. They are coming in to the temporary casino right now; we are probably 90-10% VIP vs mass. Because of them coming just four hours on a plane, with no visa. Baha Mar, they are so far away from their customers. The Atlantis that is there now – and I have been there many times with my family – if you look at their numbers, it’s a huge vacation spot, but their casino is something that people do at maybe 8pm to midnight, you’re not bringing in the big players there. Building that type of property, like Baha Mar, to spend that kind of money on an island that ok, it’s near Miami, but look at what’s going on at the Atlantis right down the street; what justifies x billions of dollars on that property? Your neighbor, who is operating by themselves, is not killing it. If Atlantis was bursting at the seams and making money left and right, I could understand it, but they’re not. High rollers are few and far between, and the mass players and families there just don’t create those numbers. We will have spent around $550million on this
project; we didn’t want to come out of the gate and build a $2billion property; we knew it would work, but sometimes you have to convince the world. We built the temporary first, with 40 tables or so, and we are doing $25million in EBITDA a month. We made back what that project cost in a month; compare that to some buildings in Macau right now, and we are proving very cost effective and we are proving that this island works. $500million spend, with a temporary facility that’s
going to make $300million? We’re playing it safe; it makes sense.
26 OCTOBER 2016
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