Gary, Pioneer-Laughlin is owned by Santa Fe Gaming, a public company which also owns Santa Fe Hotel-Casino in No. Las Vegas. At the time they purchased Pioneer, they had a big mortgage on the property with a big balloon due in 10 years. They thought they could refinance the balloon when due, but then Laughlin slowed way down, and they couldn't do the refinance. Eventually forced the Pioneer-Laughlin subsidiary into default, subject to re-negotiating the mortgage. It may force the parent company into default/bankruptcy reorganization too. To top things off, Santa Fe is a non-union property, and the Culinary Union is trying to make their life miserable through an affiliation and board appointments connected with a holder of some of their bonds. It gets even more complicated, but I'll stop there. They will probably survive, but Paul Lowden, the CEO, will probably have to give up some more ownership.

If you need more info, go to the Santa Fe corporate website, to their financials page at:

http://www.santafegaming.com/financia.htm

Note: this is a LARGE FILE -- 900K+. Like I said, it gets complicated!