Donald Trump Card Played In $7 Bln US Pacific Island Resort Gamble

US Pacific island Saipan hopes casinos can revive its economy, and Best Sunshine, a subsidiary of Hong Kong listed Imperial Pacific International Holdings with links to mainland China bred Macau junket promoter Hengsheng Group, is willing to bet US$7.1 billion on the proposition. Best Sunshine won Saipan’s exclusive casino license in a 2014 contest that required applicants to invest US$2 billion and build 2,000 hotel rooms on an island that’s five hours from the nearest population centers, has barely 50,000 residents to provide labor and services to the proposed integrated resort and had no regulatory infrastructure in place to provide oversight for the largest member of the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands, where previous casino projects on other islands closed and/or incurred record fines for violating US financial rules to prevent money laundering. Undaunted, Best Sunshine eventually raised the ante in Saipan to 4,500 rooms and US$7.1 billion, roughly equal to what Las Vegas Sands’ subsidiary Sands China has spent on its first three Cotai Strip projects starting with Venetian Macao. Best Sunshine’s president and CEO Mark Brown opened the US$2.7 billion Venetian as Sands’ president in Macau in 2007, so he knows all about outsized projects that seem way too ambitious for unproven markets.

Best Sunshine President and CEO Mark Brown, who opened Venetian Macao, is betting on blue water, clean air and beautiful sunsets to make another outsized bet in an unproven location a big winner. (Photo credit: Muhammad Cohen)

In an interview published in the April issue of Inside Asian Gaming, Brown explains why Best Sunshine believes US$7.1 billion may be a conservative estimate for what will be multiple resorts in two tourist nodes. For what Brown calls the “big resort” with more than 1,500 rooms, Best Sunshine will bid on a government owned site with enough land to offer plots to other developers for gaming and non-gaming projects. Brown also talks about opening Best Sunshine Live, a fully functioning temporary training casino located in a shopping mall in Saipan’s main tourist hub, Garapan. Designed by world renowned Paul Steelman, whose firm also conceived Best Sunshine’s 300 room Grand Mariana resort under construction along the beach a couple of blocks away, the temporary casino with 46 tables and 106 slot machines has averaged a staggering US$2 billion monthly in VIP bets since commencing high roller play in November, despite the  continuing slump in Macau, nearly all of it from mainland China high rollers, and, Brown emphasizes, in “100% compliance” with US and local rules.

During three decades in the casino business, Brown has worked with seminal figures in the industry, including Las Vegas Sands’ Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn, MGM’s Terry Lanni and a casino founder whose latest long shot bet appears to be paying off, Donald Trump.

“People will laugh, but I learned a lot from Donald Trump,” Brown says. “I learned a lot of how he operates, how he thinks, how he is in front of the camera, how he is behind the camera. So I know some is an act, some is the truth, some is spin. The guy doesn’t have billions by accident. People say he screwed people – it’s business, man.”

For all comers, Brown plays a video clip of Trump addressing supporters after March 15 primary victories in Illinois and Missouri. The candidate thanks CNMI for getting the day off to a “great start,” giving him its nine delegates – “that’s big” – and singling out CNMI Governor Ralph Torres and local GOP Chairman James Ada by name. “He didn’t mention the governor of Illinois, he didn’t mention the governor of Missouri” Brown beams, “but he mentioned Ralph Torres.” Whether by design or coincidence, Mark Brown is on a roll in Saipan.