Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI) has been officially put on notice that it can either pay its gaming license fee post-haste or it will no longer have said license.

On Wednesday, Ralph Torres, governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), of which Saipan is a part, sent a letter to IPI CEO Donald Browne warning him that the company’s gaming license would be suspended or revoked unless IPI paid its annual $15.5m license fee along with a required $3m payment toward the Community Benefit Fund.

IPI has been bleeding red ink for years, leading to lawsuits by unpaid contractors and questions as to whether the company owes the CNMI government some $37m in unpaid Benefit Fund payments. IPI slow-rolled the government on its 2019 license fee and announced last week that it was reneging on a promise to pay its 2020 fee by the August 12 deadline.   

Late last month, the chairman of the Commonwealth Casino Commission (CCC) warned Browne that paying the fee on time was “non-negotiable.” Browne replied that IPI had “no bad intentions” and that the company had “some funding that would satisfy that.”