Kirkland, Washington – Maverick private gaming established a large presence in rural Nevada starting in 2018, acquiring four hotel-casinos – two each in West Wendover and Elko – and a non-gaming hotel in Elko.
Combined, Maverick’s Nevada casinos include more than 1,200 hotel rooms, nearly 1,700 slot machines and 43 table games. Maverick also has three casinos in Colorado.
However, Maverick CEO Eric Persson said the company’s future is centered in the Pacific Northwest.
Maverick owns and operates 19 of Washington’s 44 licensed cardrooms, which he said account for roughly 50 percent of the company’s overall revenues. The cardrooms have up to 15 table games – baccarat, poker and blackjack variations.
But Persson had higher goals.
Maverick failed in 2020 and 2021 to get the Washington Legislature to include cardrooms in legislation that allowed the state’s tribal casinos to offer sports betting. In January, the company filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the state illegally granted Native American casinos a “discriminatory tribal gaming monopoly.”
So far, 20 of Washington’s 29 quarters and gaming operations have changed their compacts to add retail sports betting. Only nine quarters, however, have opened retail sportsbooks at 12 casinos. Mobile sports wagering is allowed, but only within the physical confines of the casino.
BetMGM, Caesars Sportsbook, FanDuel and DraftKings have branded sports betting facilities in connection with the Washington tribe, while International Game Technology supplies sports betting hardware for five locations.
Persson said expanded sports betting will allow Maverick to convert a small portion of the cardrooms into retail sportsbooks and allow each location to hire up to 10 additional employees. Maverick has about 2,000 employees in Washington.
He added that Maverick will again seek legislative changes to allow sports betting in the company’s small facilities when state lawmakers gather next year. The legal battle, he said, will also continue.
The lawsuit was originally filed in Washington, D.C., but has since been transferred to federal District Court in Washington state.
“We think the law passed by the state of Washington has ended up being misused,” Persson said in an interview. “We think this will eventually make its way to the Supreme Court. We’re very confident that when it does, we’ll be on the winning side.”
Persson is not generally considered a shrinking violet.
In recent months, he has become a fixture on the poker circuit in a televised event through the YouTube channel sponsored by Hustler Live Casino, a Los Angeles-area cardroom. Wearing a hat and shirt with Maverick game logos, Persson was called “the most exciting new player” in high-stakes poker by PokerGo.
A video of April of Persson trash-talking with Phil Hellmuth, who has won a record 16 bracelets in the World Series of poker, during a heads-up match has drawn more than 3.6 million views. Last week, Persson dropped a $250,000 pot, holding a $110,000 bluff by poker icon Phil Ivey.
Before launching Maverick, Persson’s gaming career included more than a decade with Las Vegas Sands Corp., overseeing the company’s global slot machine operations in the Strip, Macau and Singapore. He also served as the president of Aruze games, with supervision over the sales team of slot machine manufacturers in North and South America and Macau.
Maverick – named for Persson’s eldest son – was started by another former Sands executive, Justin Beltram, who also spent 11 years with MGM Resorts International.
The company’s initial efforts were in rural Nevada, acquiring Wendover Nugget and Red Garter Hotel & Casino in West Wendover. A year later, bought Maverick Red Lion Casino – replaced Maverick Casino & Hotel Elko – and non-gaming High Desert Inn in Elko. Maverick also bought the Golden State casino in Elko.
In early 2020, Maverick agreed to a $230 million transaction with Eldorado Resorts to acquire the company’s casino in Shreveport, Louisiana, and MontBleu Casino and Resort in Lake Tahoe (now Bally’s Lake Tahoe). The pandemic, however, caused Maverick to back out of the deal.
Maverick bought its three Colorado casinos – two in Central City and one in Black Hawk – and a gas station/convenience store with slot machines located in Golden in 2019. The properties included in the transaction have 1,500 slot machines, 20 table games and 119 hotel rooms. .
The company launched its own sports betting brand – Maverick Sports – at its Colorado casinos in 2021. IGT provides a platform for retail sportsbook at Z Casino in Central City and for statewide mobile wagering applications.
Maverick does not operate sports betting in its Nevada casinos – its locations are part of the William Hill sportsbook network, which is operated by Caesars Sportsbook.
Most of Maverick’s acquisitions have included financing from New York-based HG Vora Capital Management, a private investment firm. Last year, Maverick refinanced its balance sheet including a $310 million loan and a $55 million revolving credit line with several financiers, led by Deutsche Bank.
The refinancing retired all debt held by HG Vora, but Persson said the investment firm is still a financial partner with Maverick, after buying into part of Deutsche Bank’s refinancing.
As part of the refinancing, Maverick sold the land underneath two Wendover casinos and two Central City casinos to Angelo Gordon’s investment firm.
Maverick Games changed from a Nevada-based LLC to a Washington-based LLC in February, according to filings with the secretary of state’s office in both states. The company opened its corporate headquarters in Kirkland, adjacent to its two Washington locations – Caribbean Cardroom and Caribbean Casino.
Persson is a native of Hoquiam, Washington – roughly two hours west of Seattle – and a member of Western Washington’s Shoalwater Bay Tribe, which operates the Shoalwater Bay Casino. The tribe filed a motion to intervene in the case of opposition to the game company.
In a statement provided by the Seattle public affairs firm that is assisting Maverick in the federal lawsuit, Persson said his dream is to build a “market-leading gaming company” in his home state.
“I know that our perspective on sports betting is at odds with those who like a monopoly for tribal casinos, but respect their right to advocate for their members,” said Persson.
Maverick hired Gibson Dunn, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm. who represented New Jersey in the state’s lawsuit that ultimately led to the US Supreme Court overturning the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in May 2018, allowing states to legalize and regulate. sports betting.
Washington is one of 31 states with legal sports betting and one of five states – along with New Mexico, North Dakota, Wisconsin and North Carolina – where tribes with casinos are the only licensed operators.
The Washington Indian Gaming Association (WIGA), which has opposed Maverick’s sports betting efforts in the state legislature, has not softened its stance. WIGA Executive Director Rebecca George said Maverick’s lawsuit, “makes a mockery of the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).”
act, he said, blocks non-tribal gaming companies from offering the same activities afforded to Indian casinos.
“Maverick’s lawsuit is also a direct attack on tribal sovereignty,” George said. “As a sovereign tribe, we have carefully and thoughtfully negotiated tribal gaming compacts with the state of Washington. Now, in violation of our sovereignty, Maverick is trying to remove each of those compacts.
In a January statement, Gibson Dunn attorney Ted Olson, a former US attorney general who represented New Jersey in the PASPA lawsuit and now represents Maverick, said IGRA was used “to isolate the tribe in Washington State from the competition that exists in many other states. with the gaming market legal”.
Olson said the act, “intended to guarantee parity between tribal and non-tribal games, but unfortunately, Washington State misused IGRA to instead create a tribal monopoly on certain types of games, such as sports betting”.
Maverick representative said the law of Washington already allows for poker games in the state-licensed cardroom or tribal casino, believe the choice has no implications for tribal sovereignty.
Maverick’s cardrooms are primarily located in communities around the Seattle metropolitan area, including Kirkland, Bothell, Lakewood, Everett and Renton. Maverick also has a card room in Yakima, which is roughly two hours southeast of Seattle.
The cardrooms are often part of a small strip mall or located in a nondescript building. All offer food counters and bar areas. A handful of off-track betting stalls for horse racing.
The location caters to the neighborhoods, much like the local tavern. Many bars sell electronic pull tabs, a low-stakes gambling game similar to keno or bingo.
“Baccarat is 80 percent of my business in Washington,” Persson said of the market that has several Asian population centers.
“People who choose us want a more intimate setting and our team members want to reach out to their customers,” says Persson. “We are a different product. Many of our customers are older and have less mobility. They are not interested in larger properties.”
The Washington State Gambling Commission publishes annual financial reports for card rooms, but has not yet posted figures for 2021. In 2020, when legal gambling in the United States was disrupted by the pandemic, only 16 of the 43 card rooms operating that year generated net positive income.
Eight of the 16 owned by the Mavericks, including three of the top four; Great American Casino in Everett and Great American Casino in Tukwila, each with $7.3 million in revenue, and Macau Casino in Lakewood with $5.9 million in revenue.
Persson said Maverick pays an average of $17.4 million annually in local taxes in the jurisdictions where it operates. In the company’s proposed legislation, Maverick will pay the state a 10 percent tax on all sports betting revenue.
Maverick has its card room in several transactions between 2018 and 2019. The financial terms are not disclosed because Maverick is a private company. Persson said plans to rebrand locations across four brands — Macau Legend, Dragon Tiger Casino, Aces Poker and Maverick — have been slowed by the pandemic. He did not rule out expanding the presence of the company.
“We are more focused on existing assets,” he said. “But eventually there will be some expansion.”
Persson said sports betting will provide a “meaningful boost to our overall net revenue” in Washington.
“Sports betting is a service where there is a lot of customer demand,” said Persson. “We think it’s one more reason to be in the cardroom playing blackjack or poker and watching sports on the weekend. It’s important to us and our existing business.”
