Last Friday’s Marianas Variety newspaper reports the Rotary Club of Saipan raked in US$34,000 from a Las Vegas Night. Perhaps the Rotarians can teach Imperial Pacific International how to operate a profitable casino on the U.S. Pacific island, part of the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands.

Hong Kong listed IPI declared a loss of nearly HK$3 billion (US$382 million) for last year. After reporting stratospheric VIP volumes under former Sands China and Trump Casinos head Mark Brown, IPI has written off more than HK$9.7 billion in player debt, and still carries almost HK$5 billion, more than five times its reported profits since opening a temporary casino in a shopping mall in July 2015.

Worse, its partly built hotel in Garapan, Saipan’s central tourist district, is an eyesore, a federal case and, to some, a desecration. Worse, after providing more than half the CNMI budget in fiscal 2018, IPI is failing to deliver government revenue, a justification for casino legalization despite consecutive referendums that voted no. Deemed too big to fail, IPI is failing.