Casino union thumbs down “risky” Caesars’ REIT plan

A casino worker’s union has sounded alarm bells over plans of Caesars Entertainment Corp. to spin assets of its bankrupt operating unit into a real estate investment trust (REIT), which they claimed to be built on sand.

The casino workers union, Unite Here!, has released a report last Tuesday, warning that Caesars REIT plan will only sink the whole business deeper in its debt in the event of a downturn in the gambling industry rather than save the beleaguered casino from its bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg.

Unite Here issued the report on the same day as the hearing of Caesars’ bankruptcy case, where the casino operator attempted to muster support for its $18 billion restructuring plan from key creditors.

Caesars, which sought Chapter 11 protection in January 2015 with some $18 billion in debt, proposed that the gaming company will exit bankruptcy as two separate entities: a REIT that would own land, hotels and casinos, and an operating unit that would rent the properties from the REIT, hold the gambling licenses and run the enterprises.