news: Lakes Entertainment might sell poker tour stake to keep running

[Luv2DriveTT]

In case you didn't know, WPT is essentially a shell company in layman's terms for Lyle's Lakes Entertainment. Can anyone comment on how this may or may not be a result of the alleged pump & dump scheme of WPT stock earlier this summer?

Casino developer might sell poker tour stake to keep running
Lakes Entertainment Inc., which is working with a local Indian tribe to develop a casino in El Dorado County, might sell its stake in the World Poker Tour in order to raise the cash it needs to keep operating.

Minnetonka, Minn.-based Lakes Entertainment, which owns about 62 percent of Los Angeles' WPT Enterprises Inc., said it needs $10 million in financing by Dec. 31 and another $10 million by March 1.

Lakes Entertainment (Pink Sheets: LACO) owns roughly 12.5 million shares of WPT Enterprises (NASDAQ: WPTE). Lakes Entertainment Chairman and CEO Lyle Berman is also chairman of WPT Enterprises.

Lakes is a development partner with the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, which is seeking to build a 380,000-square-foot-plus casino and hotel resort on tribe-owned land in Shingle Springs. Those plans have been opposed by neighbors and El Dorado County officials, most recently in a court appeal that required additional work on an environmental plan for an exit from Highway 50 that would serve the complex.

[BassMasterK]

I have been keeping my eye on WPTE, and to a lesser extent LACO. If lakes ends up selling it's position in WPTE, it would not appear to have any relation to the 'Brunson Bid'. LACO was delisted to pink sheets earlier in the year because they could not secure a proper auditing firm and were severly behind on paperwork required by the SEC to stay listed (if memory serves me correct). They have been having trouble pushing through a new indian casino, which financially would be more important to them than the WPTE.

That is not to say that the 'Brunson Bid' did not have an effect on LACO. There was such an outcry from shareholders and increased scrutiny after the 'bid', that the stock plunged from where it was holding fairly steady at 20 (went up above 28 on word of the bid) down to the $6 range where it is now. Investors were no longer willing to buy into 'the popularity of poker' and instead were looking purely at what income WPTE generates, which is not a lot. This drastically affects how much money LACO can generate with its WPTE holdings. They effectively lost over 65% of the capital they likely could have raised had the bid, and the following scrutiny not occured. Additionally, if they do selloff, this will continue to push WPTE lower as there are not enough buyers interested unless the stock is so rediculously low that it becomes undervalued.

My $.02

[tek]

There was a show a couple weeks ago on PBS talking about Minneapolis guys invlolved in Vegas in the "old Days" /images/graemlins/wink.gif

One guy was a Berman. Anyone know if it was Lyle's father or grandfather or something...?

[whiskeytown]

I'll swing down - he's over in Shakopee - I'll just ask him - /images/graemlins/grin.gif

It appears the Professional Poker Tour isn't the lifesaving money printer they thought it was and the WPT is fading - (let's face it - that show went downhill when Shana Hiatt left) - I have yet to see my TIVO pick up a new episode yet -

RB