Caesars quits Ohio; Adelson’s Iran problem

Caesars Entertainment‘s portfolio is lighter to the tune of two Ohio casinos and a racino. The beleaguered company sold its 20% in Horseshoe Cleveland, Horseshoe Cincinnati and ThistleDown Racino to majority shareholder Rock Ohio Ventures, giving Dan Gilbert full control of all three properties. The precipitous move was obviously not the outcome of acrimony between the two parties: Caesars will continue to run the casinos at Gilbert’s behest and you can still win Total Rewards points at them. Perhaps Caesars had soured on the Ohio market, where it was becoming an also-ran among the state’s quickly expanding casino-and-racino market. Or perhaps it needed the cash, pronto. Given that Caesars is in the midst of an expensive bankruptcy, I vote for Theory B.

If this Gilbert partnership has been dissolved, is a selloff of Horseshoe Baltimore in the cards? True, it’s excluded from the properties affected by the bankruptcy, but so was the trio of Ohio gambling houses. Ironically, Caesars sacrificed its presence in the St. Louis market to buy into Ohio and now it has neither, just a retainer from Gilbert. Caesars also gave up interests in Cleveland‘s Higbee Building and Kentucky‘s Turfway Park. The price of the transaction remains undisclosed but legal fees will probably devour it, pronto.

Speaking of bankruptcy, Caesars is seeking to draw a veil of secrecy over it. The company has asked a judge to dissolve a court-appointed committee tasked with looking after the interests of second-tier bondholders. Caesars has to pick up the tab for the committee, which must chafe its ass mightily. “There is simply no justification for such an expense to the estate. In fact, a second-lien committee will create needless additional litigation as multiple parties spend estate resources fighting,” Caesars harrumphed in a court filing. It wants the creditor committee merged with one comprised of debtors who are not opposed to Caesars’ REIT conversion.

It seems the first committee was getting just a little too nosy for Caesars’ comfort, requisitioning documents about corporate maneuvers leading up to the bankruptcy filing. Said the much-abused, second-tier bondholders, “There are numerous pre-petition transactions that must be evaluated to determine whether they give rise to claims and causes of action that could be sources of recovery for creditors.”

* IGT is dead, long live IGT. Although the company’s devouring by Gtech Holdings was unanimously approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission, it will continue to do business in the U.S. under the powerful IGT brand. As part of the $6.4 billion buyout, primary headquarters will be in Great Britain, with satellite outposts in Las Vegas, Reno, Providence and Rome. Five regulatory approvals are still required before this is a truly done deal. IGT has been really kicked about by the competition lately but it showed some fight last week, vowing to spend $332 million on R&D. Power will be divided between veterans of the two companies, with Gtech’s Renato Ascoli the new CEO, while IGT’s Phil Satre and Patti Hart will serve as chairman and vice-chairwoman, respectively.

* Sheldon Adelson‘s eagerness to nuke Iran ended up costing his company a lot of time and money. And yes, it was Iran that pulled the trigger on the cyber-attack that wrought havoc with Las Vegas Sands‘ databases. Top spook James Clapper fingered Iran as the malefactor in the Sands attack during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “While both of these nations have lesser technical capabilities in comparison to Russia and China, these destructive attacks demonstrate that Iran and North Korea are motivated and unpredictable cyber-actors,” Clapper said, alluding to the North Korean attack on Sony last December.

“We foresee an ongoing series of low-to-moderate level cyber-attacks from a variety of sources over time, which will impose cumulative costs on U.S. economic competitiveness and national security,” Clapper continued. We’d never dream of muzzling Sheldon Adelson (just think of the entertainment value we’d forfeit!), but he’d better be prepared for cyber-consequences the next time he suggests dropping nuclear weapons hither and yon.

* Harel Zahavi ran through $834,000 in invalid markers in 2008, taking Venelazzo, Caesars Palace and the Hard Rock Hotel to the cleaners. A Nevada court found him guilty of “intent to defraud” but let him off with 34 months probation.