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Casino owner files for protection
Published Thursday, March 13, 2008
BOSSIER CITY (AP) — Legends Gaming LLC, the parent company of DiamondJacks casinos in Bossier City and Vicksburg, Miss., has filed for federal bankruptcy protection from its creditors.
The move was made to keep the Frankfort, Ill.-based company's lender from renegotiating its loan agreement based on revenue projections made before Legends bought the Bossier City riverboat casino and hotel from Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. in 2006.
"We made some assumptions of what the business could do," said Legends president Michael Kelly. "Some were a little rosier or higher."
No layoffs at the two casinos are planned, Kelly said.
"This will not impact our guests, our vendors or our employees," he said. "This is a business issue between the owners and the lenders. Our vendors are paid. Our mortgage is paid. The employees are paid."
Part of the problem with the company's projections was that renovations to its casinos have taken longer that originally forecast, Kelly said.
"It affected some of the revenue we expected. We're not growing as fast as we expected. But we are growing," he said.
The bankruptcy reorganization case will be heard in Shreveport.
Privately-held Legends, which was formed to buy and operate casinos in regional gambling markets, bought the two casinos from Isle of Capri for $240 million.
Comments
Posted by ConstantComment (anonymous) on March 14, 2008 at 9:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is just the kind of thing that makes me wonder if our market can support more than one casino. The folks who come in here overestimating this market won't just take their own casinos down, they'll cause all of them to lose money and the gamble might cause us to lose them all. I hope the market can support more than one, for the thought of not having a "boat" here as a lure for tourists doesn't sound too good. However, I also worry that the cost to the lower income community here who may have a gambling illness is a cost most of the rest of us don't have to bear.
Posted by texasranger (anonymous) on March 15, 2008 at 3:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Casino,s are like are just like a mountain tick,they just suck and suck, but give very little or nothing in return. They always win, like the man said If you give me a dollar, I,ll give you back 25cents 24 hours a day,7 days a week, Tell you neighbors and friends i,ll do the same for them. We also take mortages and farms and land.. Like the guy at Bude,Mississippi that had a gas station and Nicki,s motel.
Lost all of it on the boat and some other land that he owned along with it. I think it should be illegal to take deeds to land and houses in exchange for someone to gamble. Only one in a zillion ever wins.
Posted by bear45 (anonymous) on March 15, 2008 at 5:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We are talking about the hospital filing bankruptcy and possibly closing yet we have two casinos coming to town, the hospital is already makin pay cuts and later may not get paid at all and some vendors won't deliver necessary supplies to the hospital and here we go getting two more casinos how much sense does this make??????NONE AT ALL
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