As a way of paying off outstanding loans and cover a sizeable fourth quarter loss among its properties, Caesars Entertainment announced this week that it will be seeking to issue $1.5 billion in new debt through the sale of private secured notes.

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The proposed sale was announced through a press release from Caesars, which is looking at a fourth quarter net loss of between $452 million and $556 million. According to that press release, the notes will be available to “institutional buyers” from around the world. Caesars will use the $1.5 billion raised from the sale of the secured notes to repay “outstanding loans and pay related fees and expenses.”

Howard Stutz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Monday that Caesars Entertainment, which owns ten of the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip and more than 50 nationwide, has long-term debts that amount to over $20 billion, the highest in the casino industry. The fourth quarter numbers that the company will report on February 25 outpace the total losses for the company through the entirety of 2011, which were $246.9 million.

While the company’s Nevada properties were relatively flat in terms of their revenues, the effects of last year’s Hurricane Sandy is what seems to be dragging the Caesars portfolio down, according to Stutz. Its casino properties in Atlantic City, which include the eponymous casino, Bally’s, Harrah’s, and Showboat, were greatly affected by the weeklong shutdown of the Mecca of gambling on the East Coast and the downturn in customers in that area since the reopening of the properties.

This, nor the current debt situation, has stopped them from expanding into other gaming markets, however. Caesars Entertainment opened the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland in May of last year, a joint venture with Rock Gaming (owned by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert), and will also partner with Rock Gaming for the Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati. That casino property is set to open in March. Caesars also continues to upgrade its properties in Las Vegas, including a new tower expansion at Caesars Palace last year and a renovation of the former Imperial Palace.

Facing such a mountainous debt, it has been suggested that Caesars actually sell off one of its most prized possessions, the World Series of Poker. Last September, the financial services company Fitch Ratings downgraded the stock suggestion of Caesars Entertainment from “stable” to “negative” and suggested that the company look at selling off such assets as the WSOP to fulfill its obligations.

Caesars Interactive Entertainment (the internet arm of the company) and the WSOP were singled out as the two properties that would be worth the most due to Caesars Interactive’s reach into the European online gaming market and the WSOP’s panache.

Then, as now, Caesars Entertainment has not commented on the Fitch report nor given any indications that it would shed any of its properties.

Moving over to Nevada’s neighbor, California, it seems there are some issues for one of its popular casino outlets also. The Hollywood Park Casino, which is in the process of transferring the management of the casino from its current owner, Century Gaming Management, to its new proprietor, LAX Property, announced on Tuesday that all 600 of its employees will be laid off next month. It is not a Caesars property.

The layoffs were announced to the 600 employees through a memo sent by the company, but the new owner of the Hollywood Park Casino, Eric Swallow, stated on Tuesday that his organization looks to retain many of the current employees and honor the contracts that are currently in place with union organizations. This hasn’t stopped the unions from taking action to potentially hold up the changeover, however.

According to the Los Angeles Business Journal, Unite Here Local 11, which represents approximately 150 food and beverage workers at Hollywood Park, protested the change at the Inglewood City Council on Tuesday night. Under the city’s bylaws, the license transfer has to be approved by the City Council and the union wants to ensure that the new ownership group maintains the current employees.

As of Wednesday, there has been no announcement of the decision by the Inglewood City Council regarding the changeover.

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