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a crazy story I found on Bloomberg (if you want to skip the long article, there's a video explaining most of it at the bottom of it). Basically the Feds are investigating a tiny casino stuffed into a duty free mall on the island of Saipan (which is apparently a US territory). The Best Sunshine Casino is generating $170,000 per VIP table per day - about 8 times the average of the largest Macau casinos. With only 16 tables, in the first half of this year it made more than half of the revenue that Wynn Macau generated with 178 tables, and the company that runs it is valued at $2.4 billion. Nobody believes that the revenue is legitimate, but there seem to be more questions than answers.

What's even more interesting is that the casino is connected to a former CIA director, a former senior US Military judge, a former FBI director, three former state governors, and former chairmen of both the DNC and the RNC. There are many ins and outs but it's a fasinating article.

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good find on the article. gotta be money laundering, especially considering the connections

 

There are better ways than this to wash money

 

I agree. That's why it's such a peculiar story...obviously running money through this place has some benefit for somebody. It's a US territory so I'm not sure how they could help move money from China to the US either....wiring money there would have the same restrictions as wiring it to mainland US accounts. Maybe they take Bitcoin, and Chinese are buying Bitcoin and then using it there and then putting money in US accounts, or maybe they offer a boat that will go to China and pickup large amounts of cash for use at the casino. There's definitely more to the story.

 

I did the math after my last post and they are generating $2.7 million per day. That's a little above my money laundering comfort level lol but the same rules apply. They probably are bringing cash from somewhere via boats and planes. If the Mexican cartels can ship paper money between Mexico and chicago then anything is possible

I did a search for 5 star accommodations there and there are none. I wonder where all of these million dollar players stay lol

 

Lol I was wondering the exact same thing. I guess that's why they are building their new $500M hotel....my guess is that most of the money is being spent on large suites, since they know that basically the other rooms they put there will never be used. Apparently it's a pretty rundown island....there is zero reason for anyone to go there.

 

I was just looking

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and apparently they put their VIP's on one of several yachts they own that range up to 143 feet long or in a private villa. They also appear to own or have access to a BBJ (a 737 in a VIP configuration) to fly people into their casino in a strip mall lol.

The whole thing is ridiculous, but with the level of advisors they have, I suppose it's possible for them to have created a setup where they invite and profit from importing Chinese cash to the US while not technically violating US money laundering laws themselves. Since they have a few former senior CIA and FBI people involved, it's also possible that the CIA uses the casino to funnel cash to people in that region whenever necessary. In any event, the US probably doesn't mind billions in new money flowing here, so it wouldn't surprise me if any investigations don't actually result in prosecution.

 

I sent the article to someone who noticed the Dior sign to the left of the casino entrance

 

Yeah, I noticed that too. With the level of "play" they have there, it doesn't surprise me that they'd have a few decent shops lol.

 

Read this article the other day as well very interesting