Maverick Files to Close Its Two Elko Casinos on 30 November, With 239 Nevada Jobs at Risk

A week after the same notices went out in Washington, Maverick's Nevada arm has told the state it will permanently close the Maverick Casino Hotel and the Gold Country Inn in Elko unless a new operator takes them over. Court filings show both sit in the sale-leaseback portfolio that drew no bids in the company's bankruptcy.

• Maverick NV LLC told Nevada's Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) on 28 September that it plans to permanently close the Maverick Casino Hotel in Elko, with about 198 employees, and the Gold Country Inn and Casino, with about 41, on 30 November
• Both notices say Maverick NV LLC is in a bankruptcy proceeding that could bring a new owner or operator, in which case the closures may not happen or could be delayed
• Maverick NV LLC is one of the debtors in the Chapter 11 case of RunItOneTime LLC, the former Maverick Gaming, which has already filed to close eight Washington card rooms on the same date
• Court filings show both casinos were sold to Blue Owl and leased back in 2022, and that the leased properties drew no bids in the bankruptcy; every casino and card room in that lease now has a closure date
• Founder Eric Persson has said he will buy back the eight Washington card rooms, but no buyer or operator has been named for Elko, and any new operator would need a Nevada gaming licence

Maverick's Nevada Arm Gives Notice on Its Two Elko Casinos

Maverick NV LLC told DETR's Rapid Response unit in letters dated 28 September that it "plans to completely and permanently close" the Maverick Casino Hotel at 2065 Idaho Street, Elko, and the Gold Country Inn and Casino across the road at 2050 Idaho Street. The notices, signed by human resources director Leticia Flores and published on the department's website, give 30 November 2026 as the expected date of all terminations: approximately 198 employees at the Maverick Casino Hotel and 41 at Gold Country, 239 in total. The Las Vegas Review-Journal first reported them on 6 October.

Both letters carry the caveat used in Maverick's Washington notices. "Maverick NV 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," they say. "If the Site is transitioned to a new owner/operator, the above-referenced closure may not occur, or alternatively, the closure could be delayed."

Maverick NV LLC is a debtor in its own right (case 25-90238), jointly administered with the Chapter 11 case of RunItOneTime LLC, the parent formerly known as Maverick Gaming, before Judge Alfredo R. Pérez of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas (Case No. 25-90191), according to the docket. Maverick Elko LLC and Elko Resorts Operator, LLC are also debtors. The Review-Journal could not reach Persson for comment; he has told Seattle media that his current company is not in bankruptcy and is separate from the one that is.

A Portfolio Nobody Bid For

On 6 October 2022 the company sold the Gold Country Inn & Casino, the Maverick Casino Hotel Elko, a Mobil gas station in Elko and the Great American Casino in Tukwila, Washington, to Blue Owl for $47.3 million and leased them back, according to a motion the debtors filed on 10 December 2025. The master lease covers ten Washington card rooms in all. Rent across it was about $17.8 million a year at filing; the company had paid none since April 2025.

The debtors received no bids for the properties under the Blue Owl lease and told the court they could not operate them profitably, according to the motion. Their settlement with Blue Owl, acting through Project Evergreen WA LLC and Project Evergreen NV Owner LLC, and the secured lenders provided for rent concessions of about $11.5 million over 12 months and a process for designating each property as transferred to a replacement operator or rejected, with an orderly winddown where necessary. Judge Pérez signed the agreed order on 17 December 2025, according to the docket.

The Elko notices complete a pattern. The eight Washington card rooms due to close on 30 November and the two Tukwila card rooms due to close on 1 November are the ten Washington properties in the Blue Owl lease. Maverick's other Nevada properties, the non-gaming High Desert Inn in Elko and the two West Wendover casinos the Nevada Independent named as the Wendover Hotel & Casino and the Red Garter in July 2025, are not covered by these notices.

Every Property in the Blue Owl Lease Now Has a Closure Date

The closures follow the lease rather than the location. A rural Nevada hotel-casino and a Lakewood card room have little in common as businesses, but both carry rent the debtors said they could not pay, and neither drew a bid when the estate was sold in pieces. The December settlement bought time rather than a solution, and the notices mark that time running out. That makes the caveat in each letter more than boilerplate: the settlement was written to hand properties to new operators, so the notices are a legal floor for closures that may not happen. Whether they do depends on who will run each building on terms the landlord accepts.

Elko Needs a Licensed Operator, Not Just a Buyer

In Washington, Persson has named himself as the buyer, though the state's gambling commission must still license whoever takes over. In Elko, no one has been named. Nevada requires a casino operator to be licensed by the Nevada Gaming Commission after a Gaming Control Board investigation, and we found no application involving these properties, Maverick NV LLC or Blue Owl in the agendas and dispositions the two bodies have published from January 2025 to the Board's 7 October 2026 meeting. That does not rule out a deal in progress, since applications reach agendas only when ready to be heard. But with less than eight weeks to go, a replacement operator would need an existing licence or a regulator willing to move quickly, and nothing public yet shows either.

For Elko, the Loss Would Be Concentrated

Gaming win in Elko County outside Wendover was $12.3 million in August, down 0.27% from a year earlier, according to the Control Board's monthly report. A state labour market database drawing on Data Axle data still lists the Maverick Casino-Hotel as the city's largest employer in its 2026 release, in a range of 500 to 999 staff, well above the 198 in the notice, alongside mining companies and a mining equipment supplier. When Maverick filed for bankruptcy, Elko Mayor Reece Keener told the Nevada Independent the properties had been "an Elko staple for more than a generation." Losing both would take a large hotel-casino and its neighbour out of a small market.

Maverick's Washington card rooms found a buyer in the founder who built the company. Elko's two casinos have until 30 November to find someone willing to run them for Blue Owl.