Caesars‘ bankruptcy proceedings are becoming increasingly messy, as the legal proceedings against it threaten its long-term future.
Caesars Entertainment has failed in its bid to own litigation dismissed by a Delaware judge this week, despite arguing that the ‚material uncertainty‘ engendered by the lawsuit against it ‚raises substantial doubt about the business’s ability to continue as being a going concern.‘
It is the casino giant has utilized foreboding language whenever describing its long-term future, as it continues to battle its second-lien bondholders over an increasingly complex bankruptcy case.
Caesars Entertainment wants to put its operating that is main unit Caesars Entertainment Operating Corp. (CEOC), through Chapter 11 proceedings in purchase to restructure its industry-high debt.
However, the second-lien bondholders are suing, claiming that a number of CEOC’s assets were fraudulently transferred to Caesars Entertainment as well as other subsidiaries for the benefit of its controlling private equity backers.
We Come to Bury Caesars
This left CEOC with distressed assets as well as an inability to spend it $18 billion debt load, they argue, while placing the most assets that are valuable regarding the reach associated with bondholders. In addition they accuse the organization of making a ‚good‘ Caesars and a ‚bad‘ Caesars; one to put on the properties that are valuable the other to hold the debt.
Caesars argues that it paid good value for the assets obtained from the operating unit, such as Caesars’s World Series of Poker rights, the Octavius Tower, Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Harrah’s New Orleans, Bally’s nevada and the Total Rewards customer commitment program, among others.
Lawyers for the casino giant have expected that the parent business, Caesars Entertainment, freeslotsnodownload-ca.com be protected from legal action during the course of the bankruptcy filing of CEOC. But on the judge rejected a bid to dismiss or stay the action wednesday.
Beware the Ides of March
It is been a bad number of months for Caesars. Last week Judge Benjamin Goldgar, that is hearing the case in Chicago, appointed an examiner that is court-ordered unlimited time and budget to investigate the asset transfers and any ensuing disputes of interest.
The initial request for an examiner had result from Caesars itself, but only in relation to seven transfers challenged by the lawsuit. A spokesman for Caesars declined to comment on the decision.
Then, at a hearing of the Gaming Control Board, the ongoing business had been quizzed by board members on the cessation of retirement re payments to ex-employees. It’s grasped that 63 former workers, from executive level down, are owed nearly $33 million in retirement re payments as an ingredient of the supplemental plan the company inherited through previous acquisitions.
Caesars‘ attorney Steven Pesner told the board that the company was ‚looking into‘ the matter, but also warned that it was facing ‚the largest and most complex bankruptcy in a generation.‘
Carl Icahn Compares Taj Mahal Union Leaders To Mobsters
Carl Icahn stated that union leaders are utilizing tactics similar to those of planned crime. (Image: Huffington Post)
Carl Icahn has put a lot of money into the Trump Taj Mahal in an attempt to conserve the Atlantic City casino, but there is been one group it lightly: Unite-HERE Local 54, the union that represents workers at the casino that he hasn’t been on the best of terms with, to put.
Icahn and also the union have had plenty of harsh words for each other within the past months that are few but Icahn may have just ratcheted up the rhetoric even more.
Letter Calls Casino Contributions Excessive
In a letter sent to members of the union, the Trump Taj Mahal’s future owner called away the union’s leadership, saying that they were really extorting money from the casino by picketing the building and wanting to hold on to their past health plan.
‚ Over the last five years, whilst the Taj Mahal moved bankrupt not simply once, but twice, your Unite-HERE wellness plan has made $140 million in net income,‘ Icahn had written within the letter. ‚Yet even against the backdrop of your manager entering bankruptcy for the next time in five years, your union leadership continues to demand that the Taj make excessive efforts to the profitable Unite-HERE heath plan, or else suffer labor unrest.‘
Icahn earlier won a ruling from a bankruptcy court that determined he could break existing agreements with the union, which would allow him to finish the present medical insurance and retirement plans that union workers consented to.
Icahn would instead have employees just take subsidies and apply for health care plans under the exchanges arranged by the Affordable Care Act. The union is appealing this ruling, but Icahn says that if they should win that appeal, he would likely close the casino.
Icahn Says Tactics Remind Him of ‚Bygone Era‘
In the letter, Icahn continued to compare the tactics of union leaders to those of unscrupulous figures of days gone by.
‚It all reminds me of this bygone age when organized crime would demand grocers purchase protection, or suffer bricks being thrown through their shop windows,‘ he had written. ‚ The only real difference here is that rather of throwing bricks through the Taj Mahal’s windows, your union instead organizes strikes, picketing, boycotts and other assaults to deter customers from patronizing the Taj Mahal.‘
That picketing has continued in current months. Last Friday, union members demonstrated once more, the time that is fifth have done therefore since the bankruptcy judge’s choice final October.
‚Carl Icahn has determined to perform the Taj Mahal into the ground while he is waiting to go on it over,‘ said union president Bob McDevitt. ‚Today we are saying we’re perhaps not gonna just take this anymore.‘
Icahn Approved to Take Over Taj Mahal
Final Thursday, a bankruptcy judge approved an idea that will see Icahn take over Trump Entertainment Resorts, the moms and dad company of the Taj Mahal. Icahn will swap $286 million worth of debt he owns in the ongoing company in trade for that ownership after the business emerges from bankruptcy.
‚The Taj will remain available,‘ stated US Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross at a hearing week that is last. ‚And it’s going to be a successful endeavor.‘
That approval came just days after the casino reached an agreement with Donald Trump that allows the Taj Mahal to help keep the Trump name attached with it for the future that is foreseeable. Trump and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, have been fighting to have their family title removed from the venue.
Assemblyman Pushes For Nevada Lottery
Assemblyman Harvey Munford, who may have a better chance of winning the lottery than he does of establishing one in Nevada. (Image: yogonet.com)
Assemblyman Harvey Munford wants to bring the lottery to Nevada. Yes, that’s right: the gambling money of the globe does not have a lottery, and that is in large component to the gambling industry regarding the gambling capital of the world, which doesn’t want the competition. It’s even written to the state’s constitution: no lotteries! Nearly 30 legislative tries to establish a lottery in Nevada since 1975 have actually failed.
However, Munford was undeterred as he addressed the Assembly Legislative Operations and Elections Committee this arguing that voters, rather than the casino industry, should be given the chance to decide the issue week.
‚ This is a loss of revenue for our state that could be helping the scholarly education of our younger constituents,‘ he said. ‚It would do this without increasing taxes.‘
Very Long Chances
Members of the vegas press have noted, wryly, that Munford has about as chance that is much of this happen as he has of… well… winning the lottery.
Since, as we now have already established, Nevada does not need a lottery, that could put his projected chances at zilch, which, in fairness, is just slightly worse compared to those living across the border in Ca or Arizona.
Nevada’s prohibition of lotteries was founded at statehood in 1864 and has remained sacrosanct since, although it absolutely was amended by voters in 1990 to allow charity lotteries. Munford’s Assembly Joint Resolution No. 6 wants to scrap the ban and embrace a state lottery as a method of supporting public education and promoting the ‚health and welfare of senior residents.‘
‚I know it is been introduced a few sessions since I’ve been up here, and each time it’s always passed away. It is never been able to go ahead,‘ said Munford, that is due to step down from office at the end associated with the current session that is legislative. ‚I just said, ‚I’m gonna give it another shot.‘
Conservatives Aghast
Nonetheless, any legislation that proposes amending the constitution is going to need a huge quantity of support. The bill will have to pass not merely this session of the Legislature but the 2017 session also, before going to general public vote in 2018.
And there is opposition not just from the casino industry but also from conservative associations. Conservative activist Janine Hansen is aghast at the effect that the lottery might have in state that has one video slot for each ten residents. ‚It’s devastating for a grouped family to deal having a person who has a gambling addiction,‘ she said. ‚It destroys the family completely.‘
If the issue ever get to public vote, but, it may possibly pass. A 2009 study showed about 70 per cent of voters were in favor. A lottery would bring $48 million a year in profit for their state, research indicates.
Judge Denies Ivey’s Movement To Dismiss Borgata Lawsuit
The Borgata’s lawsuit against Phil Ivey will be allowed to continue. (Image: pokerground.com)
Phil Ivey may still ultimately come out on top from the Borgata within the lawsuit over the $9.6 million he won at baccarat utilizing an side sorting technique.
But at minimum for the present time, a judge has stated that the full instance has enough merit so it shouldn’t be tossed out of court entirely, meaning the battle over those millions could go on for many time nevertheless.
District Court Judge Noel Lawrence Hillman denied a motion from Ivey’s lawyers to dismiss the charges against Ivey and other defendant Cheng Yin Sun, allowing the case to continue but offering few clues as to which side may have the upper turn in the legal battle.
The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa alleges that Ivey cheated in a number of sessions by which he played baccarat at their casino, including fees of fraud, breach of agreement and violations of RICO racketeering statutes.
Ivey Used Edge Sorting to Beat Casino at Baccarat
A dispute is concerned by the case over four sessions of baccarat that Ivey played in 2012, during which he won the $9.6 million that the Borgata is now attempting to recover from him. Ivey used a technique known as side sorting, in which he obtained conditions for the overall game where he was able to tell whether a card was high or low even when it had been face down.
That gave him a huge advantage over the casino in a game where the household typically has a small advantage.
This was possible because one of the conditions involved having an eight-deck shoe made up of a specific type of Borgata playing cards: purple-backed cards manufactured by Gemaco. Unknown to the casino, this specific brand had backs that were perhaps not perfectly cut; when Ivey then asked the dealer to turn high cards 180 degrees, ostensibly for superstitious reasons, he was then able to distinguish those cards even face down.