CITING the increased costs of doing business imposed by Saipan Local Law 22-6, MP Holdings LLC on Tuesday announced that it is shutting down Club 88 electronic gaming arcade effective immediately, and expressed “deep regret” that 30 local employees will be out of work.
Club 88 in Garapan, which opened in July 2015, continued paying its employees despite its closure for five months last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, MP Holdings consultant, Gus Noble said.
Del Matagolai, one of the game floor attendants, said she has a car loan and a personal loan that she won’t be able to pay now that she is losing her job. She also won’t be able to pay her other monthly bills, she added.
She said some of her co-workers are renting an apartment or a house and may be homeless soon.
In a statement, MP Holdings’ general manager Bart Jackson said: “With the immediate effect of [Saipan Local Law 22-6’s] devastating tax that doubles our already high tax burden, we continue to review our business operations, and make very difficult business decisions to reduce overhead and costs.”
With the closure of Club 88, Jackson said, MP Holdings will send its 30 local employees notices of termination effective Aug. 27.
“In this difficult time of the pandemic, this is a very hard decision but we have been forced by this unfair and unreasonable tax,” Jackson said.
He added that the local law that was signed by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres on Aug. 3, was passed by the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation in June with no public hearings, no comments from the mayor or an opportunity for MP Holdings to present its case to the local delegation and correct the record on factual inaccuracies presented by the bill’s author, Rep. Ralph N. Yumul.
“We continue to ask the local delegation to repeal this unfair and unreasonable tax law and to open a dialogue with us to find a compromise and a fair reasonable local tax,” Jackson said.
He added that MP Holdings is available at any time to meet with members of the local delegation and discuss a local gaming tax and come to a compromise solution.
“We have reached out and spoken to members of the delegation and requested for the meeting but, to date, have not been given an opportunity to meet,” he said.
On Friday, MP Holdings shut down Saipan Country Club which employed six ground maintenance workers who are all local workers. MP Holdings said it has no CWs, and all its employees are local or U.S. workers.
MP Holdings consultant Gus Noble, left, poses for a photo with some of the Club 88 employees who will lose their jobs following the enactment of Saipan Local Law 22-6 which doubles the fees imposed on electronic gaming machines.
