Yes, Columbia Sussex is in default on $960 million in debt, says a Delaware court. But it's not in immediate default, giving the hotelier at least another month to wriggle out of that tight spot. However, a source for the Las Vegas Sun says the verdict “is probably the death of Columbia Sussex's equity interest” in the Las Vegas Tropicana.
If a receiver has to be appointed, it won't happen a moment too soon. The LV Trop has fallen into dire condition, seemingly more through indifference than anything else, and parts of it are appallingly filthy and/or dilapidated. It's several decades behind the rest of the Strip. Even though people like to deride Circus Circus, Jay Sarno's labyrinthine monument to coulrophobia, it's at least 100X nicer than is the Trop at present.
One potential buyer Casino Aztar, in Evansville, Ind., has been tipped. Racino owner Centaur Inc. could make a logical suitor for the riverboat. The Indiana market has been diluted by the addition of racinos and a casino resort at French Lick, the latter hitting Casino Aztar fairly hard. And Centaur's Jim Brown used to run Casino Aztar.
But Centaur is apparently close to exhausting its $1 billion gaming-acquisition fund; with Kentucky taking a good, hard look at legalizing casinos, a Hoosier State riverboat on the Kentucky border just might not be the prize purchase it once was. And Columbia Sussex may have less than a month to cut a deal before its Indiana license is yanked. (Currently, Casino Aztar is operating with a staggering number of job vacancies, including internal auditor and director of security.)
More and more, Columbia Sussex's overambitious attempt to absorb Aztar Corp. is looking like one of the biggest debacles in casino history.
