David wrote on February 03, 2009 11:09 PM: Crown Investments owns 2.5 percent of Harrah's Entertainment and 4.9 percent of Station Casinos, but wrote down the majority of its $414 million combined investment last year. James Packer will take over the Cannery Casinos as soon as Pennsylvania gaming investigators finish their work and if I were Packer, I would go after Stations with both guns.

AxMan wrote on February 03, 2009 10:48 PM: $100,000 = 7,000 back? wow!

Investors got Ax'd

Willy wrote on February 03, 2009 10:33 PM: The story is just way too above all your heads to understand. This is a packaged 'bankruptcy' which is really a restructuring. They have $257 million set aside and chose to do this now instead of face worse consequences later. The casinos make money, but not enough to pay off the high debt they took on to go private. The ones who lose are those who lent them the money, which is almost all banks and investment firms. Everyone else should get paid although there could be some delays, but no points are at risk and no casinos are going to close, although they could decide to do that in the future.

And please people who keep talking about the shareholders, you don't know what you are talking about. There are no shareholders left, the only owners are the Fertittas, their banking partner Colony Capital, and a couple of other groups like Crown who invested the last 5%. When a company goes private they buy up all the stock shareholders own.

fred t wrote on February 03, 2009 09:13 PM: Trump used to pull this same act in AC back in the 80's. The banks here hold half the investment and know they can lose most of it if Stations goes in a typical BK. So by doing a structured BK, the shareholders have a prayer of getting some money back, while the banks, who are senior to the shareholders and get first dibs, might get back a good portion of their loans. Trump won back then-the banks put him on an allowance of 20G a month, and saved their butts. But of course, now Trump Plaza, Marina and Taj Mahal have no relationship of any kind with Trump, and they're going down the tubes along with AC. Trump may have artificial hair that looks like a raccoon landed on his head, but he snookered the banks big time. Let's see what the Fertittas can pull off here...

Free Nevada wrote on February 03, 2009 09:10 PM: I thought that casinos had to maintain their finances above a level of question to help reassure law enforcement that they are being run above board (they have a billion ways to cheat) and also that all liabilities to the customers are going to be met. By the same token, closing all of the Stations until the federal judge sorts through this will hurt the state treasury and potentially anger some of the very powerful people who are involved in that venture. Really, this is the ultimate test of NV Gaming Control. Probably the only way out is to force them to turn the casinos over to a solvent company that operates it in trust for the Stations shareholders, but it will be interesting whatever they decide.

bankrupt before the neighborhood casino was even open ? wrote on February 03, 2009 08:48 PM:
if the stations are broke, then why keep letting the casinos move into neighborhoods which strains the infrastructure and drains tax dollars and slow traffic and bring increased noise and crime ?

cash in those boarding passes before they default and cannot be redeemed for cash

craig c cigel wrote on February 03, 2009 07:13 PM: what is this? are they private?

ned wrote on February 03, 2009 06:56 PM: Yipppeee, bankrupt... paying 500K for personal security, matching 400K cars, private jets... go figure

ex gambler wrote on February 03, 2009 06:52 PM: They can't pay the interest on their bonds, yet they can continue to find investment opportunities elsewhere.

http://www.lvrj.com/blogs/stutz/Stations_and_Sands_eyeing_Lone_Star_opportunities.html

av wrote on February 03, 2009 06:39 PM: "emerge from bankruptcy"???

When did they file? I have been hearing rumors, but have heard nothing about this. Did he RJ miss something?

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