Maverick Warns Eight More Washington Cardrooms Could Close, With 850 Jobs at Risk

Maverick Washington LLC has told the state it may close eight cardrooms on November 30, putting 850 jobs at risk. The notices reached Washington’s Employment Security Department on September 28. They are the largest batch the bankrupt operator has filed this year, and they stretch across casinos in Washington from Everett to the Tri-Cities.

The filings were submitted to Washington’s Employment Security Department pursuant to the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act (29 U.S.C. § 2101 et seq.). The current WARN submissions represent the largest single reduction batch filed by the Chapter 11 debtor in 2026, bringing the total number of Washington cardroom positions placed at risk across 13 venues to 1,276 since bankruptcy proceedings commenced.

The department’s layoff and closure database lists each room on its own line. All Star Casino in Silverdale is the biggest with 159 workers, followed by Crazy Moose Casino in Pasco with 137, Great American Casino in Everett with 133 and Chips Casino in Lakewood with 131. Macau Casino in Lakewood has 106, Casino Caribbean in Yakima 101, Coyote Bobs Casino in Kennewick 68 and Palace Casino in Lakewood 15. Every one is logged as a permanent closure.

A Closure Date With an Exit Clause

The letters leave a door open. Christine Wisniewski, Maverick Washington’s human resources director, wrote in each one that the company “is currently subject to a bankruptcy proceeding” and that “there could be a potential change of operator and/or owner for the site.” If that happens, she wrote, the closure “may not occur” or “could be delayed.”

That isn’t just legal padding. Two days later, on September 30, Maverick asked the bankruptcy court in Houston to approve a private sale of two cardrooms on Interurban Avenue South in Tukwila to TIL Gaming Bidco LLC. The price is $75,000 plus the buyer taking on certain liabilities, and the motion says the deal would “allow the Sale Properties to continue operations.”

Maverick had told the state on August 31 that its two Tukwila rooms would close on November 1. Those notices cover 142 workers at Riverside Casino and 96 at the Great American Casino there, a combined 238 jobs. Objections to the sale are due within 21 days of the filing.

The Rent Deal Ends on December 1

The same motion explains why November 30 is the date. Maverick leases a group of its properties from entities the filing calls Blue Owl, under a master lease dated July 6, 2023. Its Lakewood and Yakima subsidiaries are among the tenants. When the company put its assets up for sale in bankruptcy, that process “did not generate any interest from potential buyers” for the leased properties.

So Maverick went back to the landlord. A stipulation the court entered on December 17, 2025 gave it what the motion calls “significant rent deferrals and concessions,” and those “terminate on December 1, 2026.”

The filing is blunt about what comes next. After that date Maverick “will, in all likelihood, shut down” any of those properties that haven’t moved to a new operator, because running them without the rent break is “not profitable.” The closure date on the eight notices falls one day earlier.

Thirteen Rooms and 1,276 Jobs This Year

The new list is the fourth round of 2026. The state’s database shows a notice for the Silver Dollar SeaTac closure on June 30, covering 65 workers. Two more followed for July 31, with 41 jobs at Silver Dollar Mill Creek Casino in Bothell and 82 at Crazy Moose in Mountlake Terrace. Add Tukwila and the latest eight, and Maverick has filed closure notices this year for 13 cardrooms and 1,276 jobs.

The company and 67 affiliates filed for Chapter 11 on July 14, 2025, estimating assets and liabilities of $100 million-$500 million each. It had 17 card rooms in Washington at that point, along with casinos and hotels in Nevada and Colorado. It announced four closures at the time, including the Palace in Lakewood. That room is still on the state’s list today.

A Sports Betting Bet That Lost

Maverick’s Washington strategy never got the product it was built around. A federal appeals court recorded that the company “acquired nineteen cardrooms” in the state in 2019, then lobbied lawmakers to allow sports betting in them, “but without success.” In March 2020 the governor signed H.B. 2638, which lets tribes add sports wagering to their gaming compacts.

Maverick sued. On December 13, 2024 the Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of the case, ruling that the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe was a required party that could not be joined. That left the cardrooms with house-banked Table Games such as Blackjack. They cannot offer slot machines, Roulette or Craps.

One bidder in the case is a familiar name. Bloomberg Law reported in September 2025 that an entity managed by Maverick co-founder Eric Persson won a bankruptcy auction for three of the company’s Washington locations with a $28 million bid. A firm called TIL Gaming was the back-up bidder at $27 million. For the eight rooms on the new list, the date in the state’s database is still November 30.