Featured Articles Archive - Page 205

Caesars moves to restructure $24 billion debt

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Caesars Entertainment Corporation said Friday it would begin discussions with its senior bondholders in efforts to restructure the largest portions of the company’s gaming industry-high $24.2 billion debt.In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Caesars announced “non-disclosure agreements with certain beneficial holders” to discuss restructuring debt due in 2020.Bloomberg News reported Monday that the talks would involve at least five senior bondholders: Pacific Investment Management Co., Elliott Management Corp., BlackRock Inc., Brigade Capital Management LLC and Beach Point Capital Management LP.The companies have agreed to enter confidentiality agreements with Caesars to formally begin talks.In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal in Atlantic City, Caesars Entertainment Chairman Gary Loveman said the company “had made progress” with its unsecured creditors and talks with the first lien holders “was an important step” in moving forward with healing the company’s balance sheet.Loveman was encouraged the company would talk directly with the bondholders and not advisers.“I believe constructive discussions will occur,” Loveman said...read more

Atlantic City mayor has a mess on his hands

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Don Guardian won election as mayor of this seaside city last year by telling voters that fixing a government budget crisis requires a three-year-to-four-year plan.He didn’t count on a rash of casino closings on the Boardwalk before the ink was dry on his mayoral business cards.Guardian said the timetable has been dramatically moved up.“We have to put something on the plate by January,” said Guardian, 60, a Republican who took office nine months ago after defeating incumbent Democratic Mayor Lorenzo Langford.The bankrupt Atlantic Club closed less than month after Guardian moved into his seventh-floor office at City Hall — which offers scenic views of the Boardwalk casinos and looks north toward Atlantic City’s historic Absecon Lighthouse.The Showboat and Revel closed Labor Day weekend.On Tuesday, Trump Plaza will cease operations, leaving the city with eight casinos...read more

Deal Me In: Sloppily placed chips might not cut it

Dear Mark: After a Saints preseason game the other night I went to Harrah's in New Orleans. I played poker most of the night but as I was leaving I played a little roulette. It was late, and there were only two other people playing at the table...read more

New Jersey gaming chief says Vegas shows the way

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- Struggling U.S. gaming markets must broaden their appeal or prepare to for the same fate as this troubled seaside community, New Jersey’s top gaming regular said Tuesday.David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, said Atlantic City in recent years has seen challenges “not faced anywhere else in the U.S.”By next week, one-quarter of the city’s casinos that were open at the start of the year will be closed...read more

Claridge finds way to survive in struggling Atlantic City

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- The Claridge is the past and the future of the Boardwalk.The 1920s-era hotel was once the toast of Atlantic City, sitting at the famous intersection of Boardwalk and Park Place. It earned the market’s fourth gaming license, back when developer Del Webb owned the building.But the Claridge hasn’t seen a slot machine handle pull or a toss of the dice since 2005.Park Place Entertainment bought the property in 2001, shut down the gaming in 2005 and used the 500-room Claridge as a Bally’s - Atlantic City annex.Some of the property’s unused slot machines sat collecting dust for nine years.The building’s fortunes changed Memorial Day weekend.Florida hotel developer TJM Properties paid $12.5 million for the historic hotel and spent millions more to convert the brick building into a boutique-style nongaming property.During the summer months, Claridge guests spent anywhere from $100 a night at midweek, to $300 a night on weekends to stay at the refurbished hotel, which didn’t even have its own restaurant...read more

Global Cash Access to acquire Multimedia Games

LAS VEGAS -- Slot machine maker Multimedia Games, Inc. is being acquired by Global Cash Access Holdings Inc., for $1.2 billion, the companies announced Monday.The deal, which requires regulatory and shareholder approval, is the most recent buyout in a wave of slot machine industry mergers and consolidations in the past 18 months.Global Cash Access, which is based in Las Vegas, provides money transaction technology to the casino industry...read more

Talks focus on fixing Atlantic City, with a Vegas assist

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday the much-predicted obituary of the Boardwalk’s gaming market is far from accurate, despite the closing of one-quarter of the city’s casinos this year.Christie, following a two-hour, 15-minute meeting with more than 30 local and state elected leaders, casino industry representatives, tourism officials and labor bosses, said his office set a series of tasks to be completed over the next month.Christie did not reveal specific ideas for fixing Atlantic City, where gaming revenue has slid 60 percent since 2007...read more

Top-10 mouse in the house bets

I've always been an acute observer of the change of seasons, and the season that always seems to accelerate the fastest is the fall. I'll never forget the day daylight saving time ended in my first fall in Lewiston, Maine, about 250 miles east of where I grew up...read more

SLS, and visionary behind it, get warm Strip welcome

LAS VEGAS -- In the days leading up to last month’s opening of the SLS Las Vegas, Sam Nazarian’s phone was ringing off the hook.Nazarian, 39, the visionary behind the Strip’s first major hotel-casino unveiling in four years, quickly learned he had support from the competition for the $415 million renovation of the Rat Pack-era Sahara.Wynn Resorts, Limited Chairman Steve Wynn phoned from somewhere halfway around the world to wish Nazarian luck and to apologize for missing the lavish celebration.MGM Resorts International Chairman Jim Murren also offered words of encouragement.The casino company and Nazarian are business partners...read more

Searchlight Casino operator to surrender license

LAS VEGAS -- The 90-year-old owner of the Searchlight Nugget Casino has agreed to give up her license for the small casino after state gaming agents found numerous irregularities in the operation and accounting for the property’s 50 slot machines.A seven-count complaint filed by the Gaming Control Board last month marked the fourth time since 2009 that Verlie May Doing has been told bookkeeping and accounting records for the Searchlight Nugget were not in compliance with state gaming laws.In a stipulated settlement, Doing agreed to surrender her gaming license for the casino, which fronts North Highway 95, on Dec...read more