Eric Persson's Maverick Gaming declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy

[Dan Druff]

He just filed yesterday. Four of his 27 (small) casinos are closing, and they're restructuring.

Seattle Times article: https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...restructuring/


I like how the name of the case is "RunItOneTime LLC". Phil Galfond should sue!

I also noticed Persson's obsession with the Asian-sounding term "Dragon Tiger", as Dragon Tiger Casino (Washington) was one of the closures, while he also opened a "Dragon Tiger Noodle" restaurant in Vegas a few years back. Both of the restaurant locations are still open, and get okayish reviews.

Some guy on Reddit predicted the bankruptcy back in early 2024.

He followed it up in March 2025, with this post showing an ugly balance sheet for Maverick:




I tweeted about this, and was the first person in poker to point it out on social media (even though the Seattle Times beat me to the story). Persson briefly responded in the thread, despite not following me, but only commented regarding a marketing deal Maverick had with a Bally's casino in Rhode Island:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/IAmMaverick888/status/1945169458550526032



I do wonder if these Maverick Gaming casinos have a future at all, or if Persson is eventually going to sell them and get out of the business.

[mickeycrimm]

His northern Nevada casinos, Wendover Nugget, Red Garter and Maverick, are not on that balance sheet. He has some of the best comp/freeplay in Nevada.

Also, two of his Washington poker rooms, Aces in Mountlake Terrace, and Caribbean Casino in Kirkland are the only two places in that state I like to play. They are the big rooms in the state. Great action and the other rooms are to small.

[The Boz]

Bigger question is how Roman went from making 2.2M in 22 to losing almost 7 million in 23?

Did management welcome MDawg in and give him hi-fives as he cleaned the place out?

Seriously, what happened in 23 compared to 22 for almost every casino in the portfolio to have huge decreases. Higher rents and a weaker economy only explain so much. This is way beyond any conceivable variance. Note Shoreline and Lakewood had positive turnarounds.

[Dan Druff]

His northern Nevada casinos, Wendover Nugget, Red Garter and Maverick, are not on that balance sheet. He has some of the best comp/freeplay in Nevada.

Also, two of his Washington poker rooms, Aces in Mountlake Terrace, and Caribbean Casino in Kirkland are the only two places in that state I like to play. They are the big rooms in the state. Great action and the other rooms are to small.

That's funny. I never even thought of APing the Maverick casinos. Figured they were too small to have any kind of loyalty program.

The balance sheet was cut off for the post. I haven't put the effort to find the rest of it, but I know it's publicly available.

Maybe the generous freeplay was some of the reason these casinos failed.

[Dan Druff]

I made this AI version of Persson awhile back when I was on an AI voice kick for the radio show:


 

 

MP3 file: https://pokerfraudalert.com/persson6.mp3

[mickeycrimm]

His northern Nevada casinos, Wendover Nugget, Red Garter and Maverick, are not on that balance sheet. He has some of the best comp/freeplay in Nevada.

Also, two of his Washington poker rooms, Aces in Mountlake Terrace, and Caribbean Casino in Kirkland are the only two places in that state I like to play. They are the big rooms in the state. Great action and the other rooms are to small.

That's funny. I never even thought of APing the Maverick casinos. Figured they were too small to have any kind of loyalty program.

The balance sheet was cut off for the post. I haven't put the effort to find the rest of it, but I know it's publicly available.

Maybe the generous freeplay was some of the reason these casinos failed.

The "casinos" that Perrson owns in Washington are actually state licensed cardrooms that have only table games like Poker, Blackjack, Baccarat. No machines or sports betting. There are about 50 of them in the state and Eric owns almost half of them. They are in competition with the large Indian casinos in the state.

Probably one of the reasons for his financial troubles was his expensive lawsuit to break the sports betting monopoly by the Washington Indian casinos. He wants to move sports betting into his Washington properties. If he gets sports betting he would crush it. But he lost the case and lost the appeal. Now it would have to go to SCOTUS. Ironically, Persson is a member of the Shoalwater Bay Tribe.

He owned the hotel/casinos in Nevada before he owned anything in Washington.

The Maverick in Elko is the old Red Lion Hotel Casino owned for decades by the late Tod McClaskey of Vancouver, Washington. Red Lion was the largest hotel chain in the PNW. McClaskey had started a 5 jet airline called Casino Express. He flew gamblers into Elko from around the western states. After McClaskey died the operation went downhill. The airline moved to bringing gamblers to the Peppermill Casinos in West Wendover. But then covid killed the airline for good.

Persson also owns the Wendover Nugget and Red Garter in West Wendover. He competes against the Peppermill casinos, Rainbow, Montego Bay and Peppermill. If you've ever been in the Peppermill/Reno then you know what the interior of these casinos look like.

The Nugget has about 400 rooms and the Red Garter has about 200. Same slot club. They are pretty much plain jane compared to the Peppermill casinos. The locals refer to the Red Garter as the Red Gutter. His lowest slot card level produces about 1% freeplay and .5% comp on slots. The top card produces about 2.5% freeplay and .5% comp. Video poker is much lower. His promotions can be good. And anyone that reaches the top 2 card levels gets at least 3 free days a week in the hotel.

I've been working Wendover off and on for almost 30 years. Right now I'm in off mode because of the current lack of advantage slots. I've seen this before in the past. Old machines get taken out and new machines brought in. Things can change quickly when new slot games are released. So I drop in a couple times a year to take an inventory and keep my cards current. There's a new crop of advantage slots out this year and I'm hoping some of them reach West Wendover. It's a nice kickback spot for someone my age.