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Casino giant Caesars Entertainment Corp. has until at least Oct. 5 before it may have to face lawsuits that could force the company into bankruptcy alongside its operating unit, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman yesterday agreed to halt the lawsuits while the operating unit appeals a lower-court ruling that favored bondholders seeking to enforce more than $11 billion in claims. Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. (CEOC) which filed for chapter 11 protection in January 2015, will return to court on Oct. 5 to argue that the judge overseeing its bankruptcy erred when he lifted the lawsuit shield last week. Judge Gettleman said that he would probably decide at the October hearing whether to overturn the bankruptcy judge, but he warned CEOC that it faced an “uphill” fight. The temporary halt to the lawsuits means Caesars won’t immediately face potential losses in a group of cases that have been winding their way through courts in Delaware and New York for more than a year.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. won a short reprieve in its litigation with bondholders, once again hitting the pause button in its multibillion-dollar battle, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Judge Matthew Kennelly of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois yesterday granted a motion that pushes back litigation in New York, which was slated to begin Tuesday afternoon, until Sept. 16. At issue is whether Caesars must honor more than $11 billion in guarantees for the debt of its bankrupt operating unit, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. Last week, Bankruptcy Judge A. Benjamin Goldgar said that he wouldn’t renew the shield that protected Caesars from the lawsuits over whether it must honor the debt guarantees. Litigation was set to begin Tuesday on whether a $7.7 billion payment to bondholders would be made by Caesars. Meanwhile, another suit over $3.7 billion in debt guarantees was scheduled to be argued before a Delaware state court in September. CEOC has filed an appeal that will be heard by Judge Kennelly today.

A judge ruled that Caesars Entertainment Corp. must face bondholder lawsuits that could force it into bankruptcy alongside its main operating unit, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The ruling by Bankruptcy Judge A. Benjamin Goldgar means Caesars could lose court cases by mid-September in New York and Delaware worth $11.4 billion. Judges in those states have scheduled court hearings to decide whether to rule immediately against the company, dismiss key parts of the suits, or send the cases to trial. The lawsuits are the biggest obstacle left to getting Caesars’s operating unit, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., out of bankruptcy. Bondholders want to use the suits, which a court examiner found have a good chance of succeeding, to boost their recoveries above the 34 percent offered by the unit. Caesars bankruptcy lawyers vowed to appeal and asked the judge to halt the suits while a U.S. District Court judge reviews Goldgar’s decision. Judge Goldgar denied the request, which means CEOC must now seek an emergency order from a higher court overturning Goldgar’s ruling. Goldgar, who said that will be difficult, concluded that halting the lawsuits with an injunction wouldn’t help Caesars settle with bondholders.

Bankruptcy Judge A. Benjamin Goldgar said yesterday that Caesars Entertainment Corp. is unlikely to get protection from bondholder lawsuits that would last as long as its insolvent operating company is in bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Judge Goldgar today will decide whether to extend a halt on lawsuits in New York and Delaware, and if so, for how long. Goldgar made it clear yesterday that he would not give Caesars a lawsuit shield that lasts until after Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. wins approval of its reorganization plan, which can’t happen until next year at the earliest. “I’ve said that isn’t going to happen,” Goldgar said yesterday near the end of a three-day hearing on possibly halting bondholder lawsuits that could impose $11.4 billion in judgments on the parent company. The lawsuits are the biggest obstacle left to getting Caesars’ main operating unit out of bankruptcy. Bondholders want to use the suits, which a court examiner found have a good chance of succeeding, to boost their recoveries to more than the 34 percent offered by CEOC.

The bankrupt operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp. asked a judge yesterday to extend a lawsuit shield for its parent company, which a financial advisor said is critical to making progress toward a settlement with holdout creditors, Reuters reported. Negotiations are advancing thanks to the prospect of more cash for creditors following the $4.4 billion sale of another Caesars affiliate last month and the possibility of financial contributions from Caesars' private equity sponsors, Brendan Hayes, managing director of Millstein & Co said at a hearing. But negotiations need to take place without the threat of judgments on bondholder litigation currently pending in New York and Delaware against the non-bankrupt Caesars parent, Hayes said. Parties in the long and litigious $18 billion bankruptcy met in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago as Caesars Entertainment Operating Co Inc. requested a third halt to $11.4 billion in lawsuits by noteholders against its parent over bond guarantees. A current injunction expires on Aug. 29.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. has struck a deal to settle one of several pending bondholder lawsuits, a key step toward peace in the contentious bankruptcy case of the casino company's largest operating unit, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. The settlement, which Caesars disclosed yesterday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, resolves a class-action lawsuit brought by the holders of unsecured bond debt issued by its Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. unit. Like other litigation pending against Caesars, the lawsuit sought to hold Caesars to guarantees of the bankrupt CEOC unit's debt. Under the settlement, which was reached on Monday, lead plaintiff Frederick Barton Danner agreed to drop the lawsuit in a New York federal court and to support CEOC's chapter 11 restructuring, which includes a broader settlement of potential legal claims against Caesars and its private-equity backers, Apollo Global Management and TPG. Read more. 

In related news, Bankruptcy Judge Benjamin Goldgar suggested the casino operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp. (CEC) ask its parent's private equity sponsors for money to fund a plan to exit its contentious $18 billion bankruptcy, Reuters reported. Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG Capital Management LP formed the Caesars casino holding company in a 2008 buyout and the three groups are facing claims of fraud and asset stripping by creditors of the bankrupt unit. Caesars, Apollo and TPG have denied the claims. "Why should a successful reorganization depend on contribution from CEC alone?" Judge Goldgar asked at a monthly hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago. The unit recently asked Judge Goldgar to extend a halt on billions of dollars in lawsuits over debt guarantees from several bondholders against the parent while it makes a last-ditch attempt to settle with holdout creditors. Read more. 

A federal appeals court has sharply reduced a multimillion-dollar judgment against the owners of Balmoral Park, which sparked the horse racing track's December 2014 bankruptcy filing, the Chicago Tribune reported on Saturday. Chicago-area casino owners had, prior to that bankruptcy filing, won a nearly $78 million judgment against the Crete track and its president, John Johnston, in a lawsuit alleging Johnston agreed, in 2008, to give then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich a $100,000 campaign contribution in exchange for the governor signing legislation that benefited horse racing tracks in the Chicago area. The contribution was never made, although the legislation was signed by Blagojevich after his December 2008 arrest on corruption charges. The casinos had alleged a conspiracy on the part of track owners in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and a jury agreed, awarding casino owners nearly $26 million in damages. Under RICO, that amount was tripled, to $77.8 million. In a decision earlier this month, a federal appeals court said the jury "did not have legally sufficient evidence to support a verdict finding a conspiracy to engage in a pattern of racketeering," reducing the amount of damages awarded to $25.9 million.

Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. (CEOC) has broadened the support for its $18 billion debt-restructuring plan, adding certain junior bondholders to the list of top creditors that have pledged to back the proposal, the Wall Street Journal reported today. CEOC said yesterday that holders of about 37 percent of its $5.2 billion in second-lien bond debt have signed a restructuring support agreement with the bankrupt casino operator and its corporate parent, which isn’t in chapter 11. CEOC has previously reached similar deals with its parent, senior bank lenders, senior bondholders and unsecured creditors. For the restructuring support agreement with the second-lien bondholders to take effect, CEOC said it must secure the support of creditors holding more than 50.1 percent of that debt. A prior support agreement with a minority of second-lien bondholders crumbled last year when CEOC couldn’t meet that threshold. Other holders of second-lien bond debt have been vocal opponents of CEOC’s restructuring, although CEOC said that it will continue to work toward a consensual plan.

A consortium including China’s Giant Interactive Group, backed by billionaire Shi Yuzhu, is in talks to acquire Caesars Entertainment Corp.’s online game unit for more than $4 billion, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The Giant-led group has emerged as the leading contender for the business after an auction process. Caesars Interactive is one of the largest players in the market for casino-style games on Facebook, with titles such as Slotomania and Bingo Blitz. The business is projected to generate earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of more than $360 million this year. That’s an increase of at least 27 percent from the $282.7 million ebitda reported for last year, according to a filing.

Popular country music venue Cowboys Dancehall owes almost $10 million to banks, auto companies, government agencies and individuals, according to a new filing detailing the venue’s assets and debts, the San Antonio News-Express reported today. The document, filed on Monday in the Western District of Texas, gives the clearest picture of the dance hall’s finances since Cowboys Far West Ltd., the Arlington, Texas-based partnership that owns the dance hall, filed for chapter 11 protection in June to stall a foreclosure sale on the venue’s $5.3 million, 16.6-acre property on the city’s Northeast Side. Cowboys lists $9.8 million in liabilities to its creditors — almost $1 million less than the company’s reported total assets: $10.51 million. Court documents show the dance hall’s 2016 annual revenue is on track to fall by almost 40 percent from previous years.