A lack of profits didn’t drive the Miami Jai-Alai Casino into bankruptcy, but the trigger for this week’s chapter 11 filing came after the company’s owners found out that the business could be worth tens of millions of dollars more than what they had agreed to sell it for, The Miami Herald reported yesterday. “We’re definitely not a distressed company,” Miami Jai-Alai lawyer Luis Salazar told Hon. Robert A. Mark. “We’re kind of holding our own for a change.” Judge Mark agreed to let the facility continue spending its cash on operations while its owners, bankers and a potential buyer fight it out in bankruptcy court. Miami Jai-Alai’s lender, ABC Funding, accused the company of trying to use the chapter 11 filing as a way to undo a deal to sell the business to another casino investor for $130 million, about $50 million less than what an investment bank later said it was worth. Jai-Alai is a fast-paced game of Basque origin and was at one point a popular spot for nightlife and entertainment. But as tourists and locals turned away from Jai-Alai, operators throughout South Florida lobbied for the casino loophole as the only way to keep the tradition alive.
