In this issue: Dickinson Wright Gaming Attorneys Interviewed in LexisNexis Podcast; and Another Tribal Casino Facing Financial Distress - This One May Have Been its Own Worst Enemy.

Excerpt from 'Another Tribal Casino...':

The Santa Rosa (CA) Press Democrat published a story last week about the casino located in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley that was startling to most readers: the Dry Creek Pomo Tribe’s River Rock Casino has to raise $205 million by November 1 to avoid default on $200 million in debt. The magnitude of this problem was underscored by the newspaper’s report that the debt already is considered risky by Moody’s Investors, which downgraded the casino’s senior notes in August, with a concurrent public announcement that the downgrade was the product of delays in refinancing the debt issue.

Now, the tribe is down to only a few days before the November 1 deadline. Both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have issued warnings that the tribal debt almost certainly will again be downgraded if the refinancing is not concluded. The existing debt was issued in 2003 and pays 9.75 percent interest. The refinancing proposes a bond sale of notes that would mature in 2018, according to the Press Democrat, although there has been no public disclosure of terms, including interest rate.