Indiana, Colorado casino owner Centaur files for bankruptcy protection; casinos remain open

Ind., Colo. casino owner files bankruptcy

ANDERSON, Ind. — The company that owns Indiana’s Hoosier Park casino and horse track is putting its Colorado casino up for sale as it works to revamp its payments on at least $574 million in debt under its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Centaur LLC said normal operations would continue at Hoosier Park and Fortune Valley Hotel & Casino in Central City, Colo., despite the filing. The Indianapolis-based company said it would also continue work on its planned Valley View Downs & Casino project near New Castle, Pa.

A bankruptcy filing had been seen as possible since Centaur in October missed a $13.4 million payment due on its debt. The company borrowed heavily to pay for a $250 million state license fee and $150 million in upgrades to open the Hoosier Park casino in 2008.

Centaur spokeswoman Susan Kilkenny said Monday that the company had hired a consultant to seek a buyer for the Colorado casino, but had no plans to sell its Indiana or Pennsylvania properties. She said she couldn’t comment on a possible price or timeline on selling the Colorado casino, which it has owned since 2003.

Centaur’s casinos are profitable, but the company has been stymied by the debt obligations, said Jim Brown, Hoosier Park’s general manager of gaming.

“We paid a very heavy license fee to operate our facility … (and with) the economic climate today, all of those have contributed to the position that we’re in,” Brown said.

Centaur also has suffered from a lack of cashflow from its planned Pennsylvania casino, the company said in its filing Saturday with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Centaur has a license to operate a harness racing track at the site, but Pennsylvania regulators haven’t issued the company a slot-machine gambling license since it doesn’t the money to build the facility.

Centaur CEO Rod Ratcliff said the company has been in talks with its lenders for six months and that it hopes to exit bankruptcy protection by the end of July.

Centaur has complained for the past year that Indiana’s gambling taxes have hurt its ability to reduce debt.

Hoosier Park and Indiana’s other combination pari-mutuel track and casino — Indiana Live near Shelbyville — must pay more than 47 percent of their gambling revenue in taxes, compared with the 35 percent rate the state’s 11 other casinos pay. Most of the difference goes to subsidize Indiana’s horse racing industry.

Indiana legislators have declined to change the tax rates.

Ernest Elton, executive director of the Indiana Gaming Commission, said Monday he didn’t expect job cuts or a decline in business at Hoosier Park from the bankruptcy filing. Centaur is current in all its tax payments to the state, he said.