Shocking report in Saturday’s Sacramento Bee. According to documents filed with the Nevada Gaming Control Board, the Maloof family is in the midst of a deal that will significantly decrease their holding in the Palms casino in Las Vegas.
And by significantly decrease, I mean take it below 5 percent. The details, courtesy of Bee reporter Dale Kasler:
The Maloof family will soon own just 2 percent of the Palms Casino, its trendy Las Vegas property, according to regulatory documents filed in Nevada.
The revelation comes just days after George Maloof, who runs the resort and is a co-owner of the Sacramento Kings, confirmed that his family had given up majority control of the casino and hotel, on which it spent about half a billion dollars over the past decade. At the time, he would not specify the size of the family’s remaining ownership stake.
In an interview late Thursday, Maloof said the family could regain a more significant share – up to 20 percent – under buyback options granted by the creditors who are taking control.
The Maloofs’ most recognizable asset is, of course, the Sacramento Kings. But the Palms is a massive part of their identity. The casino was their trump card, their badge of cool. They developed strategic friendships, including relationships with Michael Phelps and Mark Sanchez, based on it. They even filmed a Carl’s Jr. commercial in it.
The $6,000 Hardee’s burger. The fans in Sac weren’t too happy about that one.
Now an era is coming to an end. The Maloofs may remain the face of the Palms, but financially it will belong to creditors. Specifically, TPG Capital and Leonard Green & Partners.
The family is framing this deal as a good thing, an erasure of debt burden. Really, though, it’s just another sign that the Maloof kingdom is crashing down, brick by brick. What’s that quote about families rising and falling in America? That’s Scorsese, right?
As long as the Playboy club is around, I don’t care who owns the Palms. I just hope the Maloofs don’t drag the Kings down on their way to the bottom.
