Anybody who thought Columbia Sussex CEO William J. Yung III was exiting the casino industry, let alone going quietly, got a bracing dose of reality today. The older of Tropicana Entertainment‘s two leases in Lake Tahoe, the Horizon, is in wind-down mode. It has two years to go on its lease (although it could theoretically operate into 2014) but TropEnt CEO Scott Butera is wasting no time rolling up the sidewalks.
Rather than be bothered with the continued management of the Horizon, Butera is fobbing it off on Lake Tahoe Realty I, a creature of Columbia Sussex. The transfer kicks off in true Yungian fashion with the elimination of 75 jobs. As bad or worse from the customer’s standpoint, the table games operation at the Horizon is being axed altogether and the 719-slot inventory will be decimated by two-thirds or more. While all of this is straight from the Bill Yung playbook, there’s no indication so far that it’s anyone’s fault but that of Butera. As he prepares to consolidate Tahoe operations around MontBleu (the former Caesars Tahoe), he’d clearly like to see as little as competition from the Horizon as possible. Hence its demotion to grind-joint status.
How this ledger-demain plays with landlord Park Cattle (aka Edgewood Cos.) will be interesting to see. Yung’s stewardship of the Horizon (which, according to recent litigation, could be characterized as malign neglect) was a source of great vexation to Park Cattle. One can only wonder how Edgewood execs feel about being back in business with Bill Yung. If the Horizon’s recent history — not to mention its savage downsizing to 200 gaming positions — is any guide, Park Cattle’s stated goal of converting it into a non-casino hotel is going to happen sooner rather than later, options notwithstanding.
