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Erick Lindgren, a professional poker player who made millions in competitions including the World Series of Poker, filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in three years, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The PokerStars online gambling service sued Lindgren after he failed to return a $2 million payment erroneously deposited into his account by its Full Tilt Poker unit. Lindgren also didn’t repay a $531,807 loan, according to papers filed in January in federal court in Nevada. PokerStars in March asked the court to enter a judgment against Lindgren for $2.5 million. Lindgren listed assets of less than $50,000 in chapter 11 papers on Tuesday in bankruptcy court. Creditors without collateral backing their claims are owed more than $8 million. Lindgren’s 2012 bankruptcy was closed without clearing up his debts. At the time, he owed the Internal Revenue Service $3.8 million.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. faces a new attack in its effort to cut billions in debt, this time from a trustee for bondholders whose support the casino giant needs to restructure its bankrupt operating unit, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. UMB Bank, a trustee for senior bondholders owed more than $6 billion, sued Caesars Monday in Manhattan federal court, echoing allegations that until now had been mostly pushed by a less-influential group of lower-ranking creditors. Caesars has tried for months to line up enough senior creditors to win approval of a proposal to cut lower-ranking debt, allow the parent to retain a stake in the operating unit and halt related lawsuits against its private-equity owners, Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital.

The New Jersey Casino Control Commission said yesterday that it would allow investor Carl Icahn own the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported today. The state gambling regulators are allowing Icahn, who already owns the Tropicana Casino and Resort, to acquire the troubled Taj Mahal from bankruptcy court. The billionaire will be taking $292 million of parent company Trump Entertainment Resorts’ debt and put it toward ownership of the company. He will invest as much as $100 million to keep the property open after bankruptcy.

Caesars Entertainment Operating Co.’s restructuring chief said yesterday that he thinks the company has “set the table” for a successful reorganization, but lawsuits against the casino giant’s parent could hamper the progress made in the company’s bankruptcy case, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Testifying at day two of a trial to decide whether lawsuits filed against CEOC’s non-bankrupt parent, Caesars Entertainment Corp., can move forward, Randall S. Eisenberg said the market would gain confidence if it knew CEC wasn’t potentially on the hook — at least immediately — for billions of dollars related to prebankruptcy asset transfers between itself and CEOC. A $1.5 billion contribution by CEC is a lynchpin of CEOC’s current restructuring plan, and it wouldn’t have that money if it lost the suits, both Caesars entities have said. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

In related news, prepetition lender Salus Capital Partners LLC wants to convert the bankruptcy case of RadioShack Corp. to chapter 7 to preserve any remaining value of the estate, The Deal reported today. Salus on June 2 filed a motion in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington to convert the proceedings from chapter 11, asserting the company no longer has a viable business to reorganize. Salus also said there is no advantage to liquidating the debtor's remaining assets, which primarily consist of potential litigation claims, in chapter 11. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Linehan Shannon has scheduled a hearing on the motion for June 25. Read more.

Caesars Entertainment Corp began a trial yesterday, hoping to convince a judge to put on hold lawsuits against the casino company that it said threatened plans to overhaul $18 billion in debt owed by its operating affiliate, Reuters reported. Groups of creditors have sued Caesars alleging that it must honor a guarantee of billions of dollars in the debt of its operating affiliate, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection in January. The lawsuits also alleged the parent company transferred billions of dollars of choice properties and casinos from the operating unit in the years leading up the bankruptcy, which benefited the parent and its private equity backers. Caesars has said that its guarantees of the operating unit's debts were properly voided, and that the asset transfers were done for fair value. Read more.

For more on the issue of valuation, be sure to pick up a copy of ABI’s A Practical Guide to Bankruptcy Valuation. 

Caesars Entertainment Corp. may come under renewed pressure to make peace with creditors after losing a courtroom skirmish to bondholders seeking to collect a $750 million debt owed by the company’s bankrupt operating unit, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The ruling on Thursday by U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin is the latest blow to the casino giant’s efforts to shield itself from responsibility for the debts of Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. That unit filed for creditor protection in January. The trustee for a group of the operating unit’s bondholders alleged that the parent improperly abandoned guarantees to honor the unit’s obligations, according to court documents. In a victory for the bondholders, Scheindlin said that the trustee can ask her to rule on parts of the case without first holding a trial or having the parties exchange more documents. The same judge refused to dismiss a similar claim in January.

Langermann’s of Baltimore has filed for bankruptcy after the recent unrest in city knocked the restaurant’s finances too far out of balance, the Baltimore Business Journal reported yesterday. The restaurant filed for chapter 11 protection on May 20. The restaurant is open and the owner says he has no plans to close it. Dave McGill, a partner in Langermann’s, said the restaurant had struggled with cash flow problems, but the protests, riots and curfew following the death of Freddie Gray exacerbated those issues. The restaurant owes more than $1 million total to its 20 largest creditors, according to court documents.

The general counsel for Caesars Entertainment Corp. told the Nevada Gaming Commission yesterday that the casino company was going through a “painstaking” process to determine how its bankrupt division can restore lost retirement and deferred compensation payments to current and former employees, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported today. Caesars halted some $78.6 million in monthly payments in January when it filed for chapter 11 protection for its largest operating unit. This month, the company resumed payments to workers in two of five deferred compensation plans when it was determined the parent company was partially liable for those funds.

The operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp received court approval yesterday to remain in control of its bankruptcy for another six months, Reuters reported yesterday. The ruling by Bankruptcy Judge Benjamin Goldgar allows the country's largest casino operator to pursue its plan for cutting its $18 billion debt without the threat of a rival plan from creditors. Judge Goldgar cited the size of the case in his decision, and he overruled creditors who pressed him to shorten the period of exclusive control to four months or even to end it now. Caesars will retain control of its bankruptcy through mid-November.

The casino at Atlantic City, N.J.'s former Revel resort won't reopen this summer, the property's new owner said yesterday, and it's doubtful whether any of the non-gambling attractions can be reopened by Labor Day, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Glenn Straub made his comments following a federal court hearing yesterday at which he and utility company ACR Energy agreed to continue temporary electrical service there, even as he works toward getting an alternate power supplier at the site. Stuart Brown, ACR 's attorney, said the utility has millions of dollars' worth of equipment inside Revel and fears it could be damaged if Straub hooks an alternate source to it. He also said that without air conditioning, electrical equipment inside Revel is operating at higher than normal temperatures, increasing the risk it could be damaged.