HKE gets Tinian casino license canceled

Wednesday 11th of May 2016

Hong Kong Entertainment, operator of Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino has had its casino license canceled, local media reports.

Tinian Mayor Joey Patrick San Nicolas said the operator could not meet the standards set by law.

With the cancelation, the Municipality of Tinian now has three available casino licenses.

The decision was made by the gaming commission during a special meeting on Wednesday, with a 5 to 0 vote in favor of executive director William Cing’s recommendation, who said

HKE had failed to comply with audit requirements from 2008 to 2014 and failed to keep and maintain separate bank accounts in the CNMI for banking transactions related to the operations of the casino.

HKE had also turned over the administration, management and operation control of the casinos to persons who have not gone through a suitability check.

“While it was my hope that the municipality could somehow assist HKE resume operations of the Dynasty casino, the liabilities that have been incurred by HKE in the course of conducting gaming activities are insurmountable,” said Mayor San Nicolas.

“Given all that has been said and done, HKE could not meet the standards set forth by law, and I applaud them for recognizing that while we are casino-friendly, we have rules that must be followed and this announcement was to be expected.”

For the past seven months, Tinian has not generated any casino revenues which, according to San Nicolas has a substantial impact on their ability to deliver programs and services.

“We are definitely far from being out of the woods but through the leadership’s support, we were able to reach out to seek more investors and those efforts are looking like they are going to pay off,” said San Nicolas, who added that with the recent amendments to the Gaming Act, they would be expecting a minimum of $1 million a year from casino license fees.

Last week, Nicolas says there has been serious interest from Tim Chen, owner of Chinese Strategic, who is willing to work with the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission towards being found suitable to assume ownership of now closed casino.

Bricks & Mortar License Concession Investor