Eric Persson’s Maverick Gaming to Close Eight More Washington Casinos in November
Eight more Washington casinos are scheduled to go dark on Nov. 30. Maverick Gaming, which filed for bankruptcy in July, notified the state’s Employment Security Department (ESD) of the closures on Sept. 28, according to CardPlayer. The company was co-founded by high-stakes poker player Eric Persson, who also serves as its CEO.
The properties on the list are American Casino in Everett, Chip’s Casino, Macau Casino and Palace Casino in Lakewood, All Star Casino in Silverdale, Casino Caribbean in Yakima, Crazy Moose Casino in Pasco and Coyote Bobs Casino in Kennewick. MyNorthwest, cited by CardPlayer, puts the job losses from this round at about 850.
The move follows a notice Maverick filed roughly a month earlier covering two casinos in Tukwila. Those venues close Nov. 1, costing 238 employees their jobs. Combined, the two rounds put more than 1,000 workers out of work before the end of November. Once the shutdowns are complete, Maverick will own just four properties, according to the company’s website.
A possible new owner for the Maverick sites
The closures are not locked in. In letters to the ESD for each casino, Maverick Human Resources Director Christine Wisniewski said the bankruptcy process could hand the properties to someone else.
“Maverick Washington LLC is currently subject to a bankruptcy proceeding and, as part of that proceeding, there could be a potential change of operator and/or owner for the site,” she said. “If the site is transitioned to a new owner/operator, the above-referenced closure may not occur, or alternatively, the closure could be delayed. We will provide updated information to you in the event that occurs.”
Maverick filed under Chapter 11, the reorganization form of bankruptcy that lets a business restructure debt while continuing to operate. In its filing, the company listed between $100 million and $500 million in both assets and liabilities. The July petition came after an earlier debt restructuring in 2024.
The surveillance petition and Washington’s cardroom rules
Maverick has blamed much of its trouble on the regulatory environment for Washington’s commercial casinos and cardrooms, which it argues compete at a disadvantage against the state’s tribal gaming operations. A central complaint is a rule that bars properties owned by the same company from running a centralized surveillance system. In its statement on the bankruptcy, the company tied the filing directly to the Washington Gaming Commissioners’ decision to reject its centralized surveillance petition.
Maverick said the gaming board, in weighing that petition, compared the state’s cardroom casinos, which it described as 15-table operations, to mega casinos drawing far higher traffic. The company said the lack of centralized, modern surveillance technology available to larger venues had hurt its ability to compete.
Regulation was not the only pressure. Bloomberg, as cited by CardPlayer, pointed to a softer local economy and a wave of technology-industry layoffs that thinned the customer base. High operating costs, rent among them, also weighed on the business.
Persson at the high-stakes tables
Outside the boardroom, Persson is a familiar face in live-streamed high-stakes cash games. His best-known appearance came in a 2022 heads-up match against Phil Hellmuth, when Persson needled the “Poker Brat” with table talk of his own and flipped the usual dynamic of a Hellmuth session.
For the employees at the eight affected properties, the date on the ESD notices is Nov. 30. The Tukwila workers face their last day a month sooner, on Nov. 1, unless a buyer emerges through the bankruptcy case first.