Casino company goes bust

• Advocate staff and wire reports
• Published: May 7, 2008 - Page: 1D - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Tropicana Entertainment, the parent company of the Belle of Baton Rouge casino and the downtown Sheraton hotel, says that despite filing for bankruptcy, it plans to continue its U.S. operations and leave current staffing levels unchanged.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware on Monday, several months after the gambling license for its Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City, N.J., was revoked, a major setback.

The Belle of Baton Rouge is among nine properties named in the filing.

It was not immediately clear, however, what effect, if any, the filing would have on the downtown boat’s operations.

Senior staff members with the Louisiana Gaming Control Board were out of state Monday.

Through the control board office, Confidential Assistant Trudy Fuselier referred questions to Leonce Gautreaux, a deputy director in the Attorney General’s Office.

Gautreaux did not return a request for comment. Through a spokeswoman, Jennifer Cluck, Gautreaux said he was aware of Tropicana’s filing but would not comment further.

The other eight properties included the bankruptcy filing are: The Tropicana Casino & Resort in Las Vegas; Bayou Caddy’s Jubilee Casino in Greenville, Miss.; Casino Aztar in Evansville, Ind.; Horizon Casino Hotel in Vicksburg, Miss.; Horizon Casino Resort and the MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa, both in Lake Tahoe, Nev.; the Tropicana Express Hotel & Casino in Laughlin, Nev.; and the River Palms Resort & Casino in Laughlin, Nev.

Two properties are not affected by the filing — The Tropicana in Atlantic City, which is in the process of being sold in accordance with New Jersey regulators’ orders, and the Lighthouse Point Casino in Greenville, Miss.

Two others — the Amelia Belle Casino near Morgan City, and the Westin Casuarina Las Vegas Hotel Casino & Spa — are held by a corporate affiliate and also were excluded from the filing.

Tropicana was buffeted by a chain of events that began in December when the New Jersey Casino Control Commission determined the company was incapable of running the Tropicana in Atlantic City and yanked the casino license after less than a year.

That touched off a funding crisis that the company desperately struggled to fend off until filing for protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, listing assets of $2.8 billion and liabilities of $3.3 billion.

Scott C. Butera, the company’s president, called the filing “an opportunity to take a breathing spell,” get its debt under control and move forward.