Maverick Files to Close Eight More Washington Card Rooms, With 850 Jobs Going on 30 November

Notices filed with Washington's Employment Security Department put eight of Maverick's card rooms on course to close at the end of November, on top of two in Tukwila on 1 November. The company says a buyer in its Chapter 11 case could keep some open, and one Pasco councilman says that is already happening.

• Maverick Washington LLC filed eight Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices with Washington's Employment Security Department on 28 September, each for a permanent closure on 30 November, covering 850 workers in total
• The card rooms are Chips Casino, Macau Casino and Palace Casino in Lakewood, Great American Casino in Everett, All Star Casino in Silverdale, Coyote Bobs Casino in Kennewick, Crazy Moose Casino in Pasco and Casino Caribbean in Yakima
• Two Tukwila card rooms, Riverside Casino and Great American Casino, were already due to close on 1 November with 238 jobs, which is why some reports count ten closures; the state's database shows 13 Maverick closure notices this year covering 1,276 workers
• The company's notices say a change of owner or operator through its Chapter 11 case could stop or delay any closure, and a Pasco councilman says Crazy Moose is changing hands rather than shutting
• Maverick has blamed the state regulator's refusal of a centralised surveillance petition and competition from tribal casinos, whose exclusive right to sports betting it failed to overturn when the Supreme Court declined its appeal in October 2025

Eight Notices, One Date, 850 Jobs

Maverick Washington LLC, the Washington card room arm of the Kirkland-based operator Maverick Gaming, notified the state's Employment Security Department (ESD) on Monday 28 September that it will permanently close eight card rooms on 30 November, according to the department's WARN database. The largest is All Star Casino in Silverdale, with 159 workers. Crazy Moose Casino in Pasco has 137, Great American Casino in Everett 133, Chips Casino in Lakewood 131, Macau Casino in Lakewood 106 and Casino Caribbean in Yakima 101. Coyote Bobs Casino in Kennewick has 68 and Palace Casino in Lakewood 15. The notice for Chips lists table games dealers, security staff, cage cashiers, servers, cooks and managers, and says some employees are represented by Teamsters Local Union No. 117, according to KOMO News.

Each letter carries the same caveat from Maverick Washington's human resources director, Christine Wisniewski. "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 wrote, according to MyNorthwest. "If the site is transitioned to a new owner/operator, the above-referenced closure may not occur, or alternatively, the closure could be delayed." In Pasco, city councilman Leo Perales said after receiving the notice that "Crazy Moose is changing ownership rather than shutting down", NewsTalk 870 reported; Maverick has not confirmed a sale.

A Year of Closures

The new notices extend a run of closures through 2026. The ESD database lists Silver Dollar SeaTac, with 65 workers, closing on 30 June, then Crazy Moose in Mountlake Terrace, with 82, and Silver Dollar Mill Creek in Bothell, with 41, on 31 July. On 31 August Maverick filed notices for Riverside Casino, with 142 workers, and Great American Casino, with 96, both in Tukwila and both closing on 1 November. Several sites had already shut in 2025, according to MyNorthwest, including the Dragon Tiger in Mountlake Terrace, the Silver Dollar in Renton and the Roman Casino in Seattle.

The Chapter 11 case explains the caveat. RunItOneTime LLC, the parent formerly known as Maverick Gaming, filed in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on 14 July 2025, owing $305 million on a secured term loan, according to Law360. In November 2025 the court approved a $62.5 million sale of its core assets to its secured lenders. At the time of filing it ran 17 house-banked card rooms in Washington alongside casinos in Nevada and Colorado, according to a summary of the first-day filings by Bondoro.

The Reasons Maverick Gives

Maverick has blamed Washington's regulator. When it closed sites in 2025, the company said on its website that the decision followed "the Washington Gaming Commissioners' choice to shut down the centralized surveillance petition, which was intended to support Washington Cardrooms", a petition the Washington State Gambling Commission refused in January 2025, according to Bondoro. "The lack of centralized and advanced surveillance technology, in contrast to what is available in larger establishments, has further hindered our ability to compete effectively," it said. Its bankruptcy filings also cited tax-exempt tribal casinos with fewer restrictions and a 46% rise in labour costs between 2022 and 2025 driven by local minimum wage rules, notably in Tukwila, according to the same summary.

The tribal point has a legal history. In January 2022 Maverick sued the federal and state governments to overturn the compacts that, under a 2020 state law, give Washington's tribes the exclusive right to offer sports betting. The district court dismissed the case in 2023 because the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe was a required party that could not be joined owing to its sovereign immunity, and the Ninth Circuit affirmed on 13 December 2024. The Supreme Court denied review in RunItOneTime LLC v. United States, No. 24-1161, on 6 October 2025, ending the case.

The Notices Are a Legal Floor, Not a Final Count

WARN rules generally require 60 days' notice of a closure, and a company in Chapter 11 has every reason to file early and caveat heavily. The number of card rooms that actually close on 30 November will depend on how many find buyers, and the Pasco example suggests some will. That makes the 850 figure a ceiling for this round rather than a prediction, and it means workers in Lakewood, Everett and Yakima face two months of uncertainty about whether their site is among those sold. What the notices do establish is that Maverick no longer intends to run these card rooms itself.

Washington's Card Room Model Has Been Losing to the Tribes for Years

Maverick's argument was that small, taxed, table-capped card rooms could not compete with tribal casinos that can offer sports betting and more games, and its attempt to change that in court failed on a procedural point that never reached the merits. The state has since enforced the same gambling law against newer competitors, winning an injunction against Kalshi that pushed the exchange to geofence the state. For the commercial card room sector, the closures are a test of whether the model survives in other hands or contracts further. The regulator's surveillance decision is one factor Maverick cites, but its own filings point as much to labour costs and leverage.

Maverick bought its way to become one of Washington's largest card room operators and is now leaving it site by site. Whether the buildings close or merely change owners is the question the bankruptcy court will answer by 30 November.