Deadwood casino files for bankruptcy protection

Another casino on Deadwood’s Main Street could be in danger of closing after the owners of the Celebrity Hotel and Casino reportedly filed paperwork seeking protection from creditors.

The Rapid City Journal reports that documents were filed on Nov. 1 in Rapid City with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Dakota. According to the news agency, the documents filed indicate that the Celebrity Hotel and Casino had, as of Sept. 30, assets totaling $6.37 million, which includes $5.5 million in total fixed assets.

Additionally, other documentation including federal tax return, balance sheet, and operations and cash flow statements, reportedly listed the South Dakota property’s total equities and liabilities at $6.37 million, with upwards of $3.5 million owed on a pair of loans from First Interstate Bank, according to the Rapid City Journal.

The Rapid City daily newspaper reports that while its attempts to reach the owners of the property were unsuccessful, the general manager of the Celebrity, Ken Gienger, said that the Dead 7BALL wood Main Street hotel-casino is not in any imminent danger of closing. He reportedly told the newspaper that the owners, Nebraska residents Brian Holcomb and his daughter, Amanda Cook, were going through a reorganization period.

“Reorganization is the conversation I’ve had with the owner,” said Gienger, who since 1998 has managed the hotel-casino. “Our goal is to continue to improve and come out with the best result that is possible. It might be good, it might be bad, but it will work out,” he said.

The news comes just 10 weeks after actor Kevin Costner closed the doors of his Midnight Star casino, also located on Deadwood’s Main Street, after a 26-year run. The Academy Award-winning actor opened the entertainment venue in the spring of 1991, just two years after gambling was approved via special town election on Nov. 1, 1989.

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According to the Rapid City Journal, Gienger said the Celebrity employs two dozen full and part-time workers and features 90 slot machines and a 22-room hotel.

In an interview with the executive director of the Deadwood Gaming Association, Mike Rodman, the daily newspaper asked if the luster had died on Deadwood gaming. Rodman said, “Obviously we have had a five-year period of reduced revenues for Deadwood gaming, which we’ve tried to signal the alarm bells about. Any industry that has that period of decline in revenues is going to feel the negative impacts. We’ve seen it mainly impacting Main Street of Deadwood more than other properties.”

Rodman went on to say that in the past they have approached the Legislature seeking 24-hour liquor sales and an increase in the hotel occupancy tax to give the gaming association more marketing dollars, but both proposals were rejected.