Operator Of Popular Tri-Cities & Yakima Casinos Files Bankruptcy

The operators of two of the oldest casinos in the Tri-Cities have voluntarily filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11.  Maverick Gaming made the news public yesterday (July 17th) in a press release on their website.  The company at one time owned and operated twenty-seven casinos across three states (Washington, Nevada, and Colorado) with seventeen of them in the Evergreen State.

Well they used to have seventeen in Washington State.  Maverick owned the Crazy Moose Casino in Pasco and Coyote Bob's Roadhouse Casino in Kennewick after buying them 2019 from Washington Gold.  Word is the two card rooms are now sitting in a receivership (along with the rest of the casinos) as a result of the filing.

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Maverick has had it's struggles over the last few years.  They tried to get a piece of the sports betting pie through the legislative process multiple times, but failed each time. The company then tried the legal route and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's dismissal of Maverick's lawsuit against the tribal casinos in the state.

More than just those factors played into the filing (the economy for one) and the list of creditors in their filing isn't exactly small.  Those struggles led to Maverick selling a number of properties to Oak Street Capital out of Chicago.  While Maverick sold the buildings and land, they had an agreement to continue operating the businesses through leasing back from Oak Street

A source in the industry with knowledge of the situation told me that the building and land for the Crazy Moose was sold for around $32 million, Coyote Bob's for  $15 million, and The Caribbean Casino in Yakima for $16 million to a real estate investment company.  Maverick leased the property back and continued operating the three casinos.

My source also told me court records showed the sale to a real estate company in Chicago, which is where Oak Street is based, but it did not name Oak Street as the buyer.  What the future of the Moose and Bob's will be is yet to be determined.  For now they continue to operate as normal but that could change faster than the shoe on Spanish 21.