French Lick Casino news source: http://www.courier-journal.com
Monday, June 19, 2006
UPDATE
By Grace Schneider
gschneider@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
The two companies that joined forces to build Indiana’s 11th casino — now under construction in French Lick — are embroiled in a lawsuit that has been sealed by a judge in Orange County.
The suit and a request for an injunction were filed by Bloomington-based medical-device manufacturer Cook Group Inc. against Lauth Resorts and Casinos LLC.
The decision to seal them, made by Orange Circuit Judge Larry Blanton, prevents details about the dispute from being made public.
But Indiana’s gambling regulators acknowledged earlier this month that the partners in the Orange County revitalization effort — Cook and Lauth — had entered mediation in an attempt to resolve a continuing dispute over control of the project.
That project includes construction of a casino with 1,200 slot machines and 46 table games, as well as several restaurants and a convention center.
The partnership, called Blue Sky Casino LLC, is also overseeing a restoration of the French Lick Springs Resort and its 18-hole golf course and building a new swimming pool complex and 800-space parking garage.
Officials with both companies on Monday declined to discuss the litigation or other aspects of an ambitious Nov. 1 deadline for opening the casino and 400 rooms at the French Lick resort.
A company hired by Cook, Texas-based Benchmark Management Inc., has begun hiring more than 1,000 employees this spring to staff the resort and casino operation. Training for dozens card dealers is set to begin next month.
Ernest Yelton, the gaming comission’s executive director, said Monday that the commission staff had not had chance yet to review the lawsuit or the request for an injunction.
A one-page order signed by Blanton on June 8 grants a request from Orange County Holdings LLC, a company formed by Cook Group, to file a lawsuit and the related complaint for injunctive relief under seal.
Yelton acknowledged concerns about whether the litigation could slow progress on the casino.
“With litigation, we’re going to be extremely observant,” about the pace of the project, Yelton said. “We’ll be sure the commission … knows the project won’t be delayed."
Yelton had revealed two weeks ago that the partners could face disciplinary action from the commission because it failed to secure all the required financing for the project by a May 1 deadline.
During that meeting, the group’s secretary Don Vowels, an Evansville lawyer, said the two companies had an agreement that called for Lauth to transfer 25 percent of its interest in the project to Cook if the casino’s financing wasn’t in place by April 15.
Yelton said Monday he couldn’t say for sure whether the suit involves the same ownership issues.
Reporter Grace Schneider can be reached at (812) 949-4040. |
For more French Lick casino information visit: http://www.worldcasinodirectory.com/indiana/french-lick
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