Caesars liberated from bankruptcy; Wynn pitches tantrum

It’s not the end, nor the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning for the Caesars Entertainment bankruptcy, to paraphrase Winston Churchill.  So protracted has the bankruptcy been that its quiet resolution comes as an anticlimax.”I’ve never seen so much paper in my life,” said Judge Benjamin Goldgar of the millions of pages of documentation generated by the Chapter 11 filing. Judge Goldgar having given his assent for Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. to reform as a REIT, the process now moves on for consideration in Nevada, New Jersey, Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana and anywhere else Caesars operates. One hopes Goldgar had a big courtroom: the attorneys in attendance alone numbered nearly 200, to say nothing of other interested parties.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee having dropped its objection to the Caesars exit strategy, the path is clear to wipe $10.5 billion in bad debt off Caesars’ books. Caesars’ creditors will become the landlords of its casinos, recouping their debt through rent payments from the Roman empire. Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management will see their shares of CEOC reduced to 15% each. However, it’s not clear that CEO Mark Frissora has learned from predecessor Gary Loveman‘s free spending ways. He continues to pursue a casino in South Korea and now one in Japan (there goes the $10 billion), as well as coveting the Ontario and Atlanta markets. As for Caesars, when the numbers are broken down, creditors emerge as big winners — which is the kind of happy ending we like to see.

* Tom Ford has incurred the wrath of Steve Wynn. Since Ford won’t dress Melania Trump for her husband’s inaugural, Wynn threw a cosmic snit had ordered all Ford products banished from Wynncore stores. It’s a move that will have Ford crying all the way to the bank.

* Citing construction difficulties, MGM Resorts International has pushed the opening of MGM Cotai into late 2017. I wouldn’t read too much into this: MGM has always been sanguine about Macao‘s economic turnaround and the delayed entry will enable it to enter what will probably be a fatter market by that point.

* Virginia state Sen. Louise Lucas (D) has not failed to notice that millions of dollars in poker revenue will soon be flowing to MGM National Harbor in Maryland. To counter this, she has introduced a bill that would amend the state’s ban on games “the outcome of which is uncertain or a matter of chance.” Her bill would add the follow language: “Poker games shall be deemed games of skill, and nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to make any such game illegal gambling.” Regulation would be handled, improbably enough, by the Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. It would be worth passing the legislation to see poker adjudication on the same docket as livestock issues.