Triple Hit for Twin River — Falling Stock, Layoffs and Ongoing Investigations
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Twin River is facing a plethora of challenges.
The company’s stock has lost 37 percent of its value from its 52-week high of $33.98. At Tuesday's closing, the stock was $21.07.
And, Twin River confirmed on Tuesday night that the company was in the midst of layoffs.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn addition, the company is facing federal and state investigations.
“We are also exploring voluntary reduction of hours in order to reduce the number of layoffs. In total, we believe 30 table games supervisors will be impacted,” said company spokesperson Patti Doyle.
“We are effectively staffing to the present volume of business on the table games. We also are hoping post-Labor Day trends kick in so we will potentially have the ability to re-hire some of the employees impacted,” said Doyle.
Both the stock plunge and the layoffs are believed to be tied to the successful launch of the Encore casino in Boston.
According to the Mass Gaming Commission, Encore realized $$93,503,071.70 in “coin-in” in its first week of operation — the only data reported to date for the new facility.
According to Casino.org, “Twin River has a history of successful acquisitions, including Dover Downs. While the company has been rumored to be a potential suitor for a Las Vegas Strip asset should one come up for sale, management quashed that notion.”
“On a call with analysts and investors on Monday, TRWH CEO George Papanier said Las Vegas ‘ranks low on our priority list,’ and that Atlantic City would be ‘in that category also.’ Papanier said the company is focused on regional markets, such as the Midwest and the South, where ‘there are some opportunities that are going to be coming out of the Eldorado/Caesar’s deal, and we’re going to be kicking a lot of tires,’” reported the trade publication.
Investigations -- Federal and State
In July, GoLocal reported that Twin River Worldwide Holdings, is facing both federal and state investigations on different matters and recently, as part of a third legal battle in federal court, came to a settlement where the company agreed to pay 72 supervisors nearly $800,000 in back overtime wages.
All of this is occurring as the company is trying to expand in Rhode Island and has purchased two casinos from gambling rival Eldorado Resorts — one in Missouri and one located in Mississippi.
The Rhode Island Attorney General and State Police Raided Twin River in June
In June, the Rhode Island State Police, with subpoenas in hand, raided Twin River Casino.
Working with the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General, the State Police executed state court-ordered search warrants.
The execution of these warrants was part of an active and ongoing criminal investigation and no other information was provided at the time by the Attorney General's office.
Twin River's spokeswoman Patti Doyle said in a statement at the time of the raid, "We are cooperating fully with the RI State Police on this matter. We believe the focus is on activities of one of our tenants.”
But, nearly simultaneous to the State Police raid, GoLocal learned that top Twin River executive Mike Barlow was suddenly no longer actively working for the company.
The Vice President for Operations was removed from the company’s website and a woman at Twin River’s corporate headquarters told GoLocal that he was not available and she did not know if he was returning.
First reported by WJAR-10, Rhode Island, along with Stonington, Connecticut police raided Barlow’s home in mid-June.
A number of law enforcement officials tell GoLocal that this state investigation has been in development for a significant period of time.
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