The Nevada Gaming Control Board on Wednesday voted unanimously to recommend reinstating an unrestricted gaming license for the former Horseshoe Club.
Mike Pegram, owner of Bodines casino in south Carson City, plans to take that license and transfer it to a second Bodines planned for north Carson City.
“It’s pretty simple,” said Pegram. “We bought the license with the intent to move it to north Carson and we’re in the process of acquiring a suitable spot there.”
Wednesday’s vote was the second step in that process, the first being city Board of Supervisors approval last week to transfer that license to Pegram’s Silver Bullet LLC.
The license is valuable to Pegram because it was issued in 1973 and predates the city ordinance requiring unrestricted casinos have at least 100 hotel rooms. The horseshoe license is grandfathered in and he won’t have to build hotel rooms.
Once the Gaming Commission formally approves the board’s decision later this month, the next step will be to actually move the license from the Horseshoe Club to the new Bodines.
Until then, to keep that license active, the Horseshoe will open its casino for business eight hours on one day each calendar quarter until the new location is ready. Attorney Dennis Nylander said other than that one day, the Horseshoe will be closed.
“Historically the board has allowed these closings,” Nylander said.
Member Shawn Reid said these type of arrangements are nothing new to the control board.
“We’ve seen this before,” he said. “The difference here is that the grandfather requirement is a local requirement. To keep that active, they need state approval as well.”
Attorney Sev Carlson said the application to actually move the Horseshoe Club license has been put on hold until they finalize a deal for a location.
He and Nylander said that deal hasn’t yet been reached.
“In economic terms, we felt we had an agreement,” said Nylander.
But he said when the parties put it down on paper, there were a number of issues to work out.
Last Thursday, the Carson City Board of Supervisors approved the transfer after a lengthy discussion. Most of the discussion then revolved around whether the license was still in good standing since the Horseshoe Club hasn’t paid its license fees for seven quarters. The defunct business last paid for the final quarter of 2014, then operated for 19 days in January 2015 without paying its fees for that quarter or since.
The supervisors approved the transfer with the condition the fees for all seven quarters be paid by Dec. 31.