{"id":15212,"date":"2014-12-15T16:30:21","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T00:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=15212"},"modified":"2023-03-15T08:11:16","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T16:11:16","slug":"captain-lovemans-sinking-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/captain-lovemans-sinking-ship\/","title":{"rendered":"Captain Loveman’s sinking ship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Loveman_x220\"<\/a>As was widely expected, Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> defaulted on a $225 million interest payment<\/a>, setting the stage for a prearranged bankruptcy<\/a>. Company spokesman Stephen Cohen<\/strong> said airily,\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s clear Caesars has sufficient liquidity<\/a> to make the payment, we just chose not to at this time.\u201d In related SEC<\/strong> filings, the company alluded to an unspecified “oral agreement in principle” with certain parties to its debt negotiations. The plan is apparently to put Caesars Entertainment Operating Co<\/strong>. into bankruptcy and then reinvent it as a REIT, since it controls over 75% of the company’s real estate (and a hernia-inducing\u00a010:1 debt-to-cash flow ratio). A managerial company would be spun off the REIT, enabling CEO Gary Loveman<\/strong> to keep calling the shots.<\/p>\n

Making Loveman’s job harder, creditors keep leaving<\/a> the sinking Caesars ship.\u00a0KKR & Co<\/strong>. and Franklin Resources<\/strong> are among those believed to have told Caesars to go fly a kite over its latest restructuring plan<\/a>. Ditto “the world\u2019s biggest asset manager,” BlackRock Inc<\/strong>. “Shelving the negotiations means that Caesars must now decide whether to proceed with the bankruptcy plan without the blessing of its highest-ranking lenders,” reported Bloomberg News<\/strong>. Further complicating the picture, UMB Bank<\/strong> is still negotiating with Caesars but is simultaneously suing to have its top brass removed from office.<\/p>\n

Having just offloaded defunct Showboat Atlantic City<\/strong> for $18 million, Caesars effectively took the cash and used it to placate long-suffering, second-tier note holders with a $16 million payment. (“An applicable high-yield discount obligation redemption” is the formal term.)<\/p>\n

* In a laudable development, the University of Nevada Las Vegas<\/strong> is going to begin teaching gaming regulation<\/a>. It’s a program that’s much needed, especially here. This is the brainchild of veteran gaming attorney Anthony Cabot<\/strong>. While I’ve not always agreed with Cabot’s views, his expertise and experience are both undeniable, putting him at the forefront of gaming-law practice.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve always felt that there wasn\u2019t sufficient academic research or academic recognition of gaming law as an actual discipline,\u201d Cabot told Vegas Inc<\/em>. The, uh, student body is described as “officials from areas that are expanding the gaming industry, or new regulators with limited professional exposure to casinos.”<\/p>\n

While there’s been some sporadic instruction in gaming regulation at UNLV, “here and there,” Cabot says, this will be the first dedicated program. International Gaming Institute<\/strong> Executive Director Bo Bernhard<\/strong> makes an excellent point:\u00a0\u201cThe gaming industry is a very strictly scrutinized industry, in large part because it\u2019s got a history of bad guys being involved, but there\u2019s never been an academic field dedicated looking at how you monitor and regulate this very complex and global industry.\u201d As Cabot says, hopefully it will take the guesswork out of regulatory practice.<\/p>\n

* Genting Americas<\/strong> is so eager for an upstate New York<\/strong> casino that it’s making the nonsensical argument that it will “build off clients who already go to Resorts World Casino<\/strong> at the Aqueduct Racetrack<\/strong> in New York City<\/strong>\u2019s Queens<\/strong> borough.” Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose? Meanwhile, slot parlors on Long Island<\/strong> continue to move forward<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As was widely expected, Caesars Entertainment defaulted on a $225 million interest payment, setting the stage for a prearranged bankruptcy. Company spokesman Stephen Cohen said airily,\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s clear Caesars has sufficient liquidity to make the payment, we just chose not to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,120,7,101,25,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15212"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32471,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15212\/revisions\/32471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}