Parker: Griffin Investigations files for bankruptcy

[Parker]

From today's (09/13) Las Vegas Sun:

"The company that produces the Griffin book claims it's broke.

"Griffin Investigations Inc., which distributes lists of suspected cheaters and card counters to casinos, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing a defamation lawsuit filed against the company by gamblers who said they were improperly detained at the Caesars Palace and Imperial Palace casinos, called cheaters and arrested."

Link to complete story below.

I suddenly feel an urge to break out in a chorus of "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead." :-)

Griffin book producer files for Chapter 11, citing suit

[Viktor Nacht]

I'm thinking that we should ask everyone who comes to the party in costume to stand for a group photo where we all flip-off the camera en masse, and then email and/or send it certified mail. That would be fun.

Good Cards,

V

[oldnewbie]

I'll wait for awhile before I celebrate.

Pardon my cynicism, but don't be surprised if Griffin uses the chapter 11 to get out of paying the lawsuit awards and "restructures" later and is back in business.

We haven't seen the last of these snakes. They'll be back, just slithering out from under a different rock.

Never a mongoose around when you need one!

[Parker]

> I'll wait for awhile before I celebrate.

> Pardon my cynicism, but don't be surprised if Griffin
> uses the chapter 11 to get out of paying the lawsuit
> awards and "restructures" later and is back
> in business.

> We haven't seen the last of these snakes. They'll be
> back, just slithering out from under a different rock.

> Never a mongoose around when you need one!

It is true that a chapter 11 filing is not necessarily the kiss of death. Many companies have emerged from Chapter 11 stronger than ever.

However, I don't think that this will happen with Griffin. The bigger damage is that the casinos are now aware that using Griffin exposes them to liability, and thus be reluctant to continue using the service.

In addition, Griffin has been exposed to the casinos as the shoestring mom & pop operation that they are (apologies to moms and pops everywhere), providing yet another reason to discontinue the use of their service.

[Victoria]

Along the same line of thinking as Parker, one must wonder even before this if casinos were renewing their contracts with Griffin and if so were they at lower rates. Modern technology that the casinos can afford and Griffin can not plus the fact that buyouts have created mega casino corporations, probably results in Griffin looking more and more like a dinosaur to their clients every day.
The multi casino firms can bring it all in house and many casinos already share with others. I think the Venetian has been sharing advantage player information with Harrah's for years.
Now partial blame to Griffin for casino exposure to lawsuits and Griffin's own financial weakness makes them look to me as a negative EV bet for any casino.

I would hope that Grosjean and Russo get paid and especially get paid before the # 3 and # 4 largest creditors who are the Griffins themselves.

Victoria

[Sun Runner]

> I would hope that Grosjean and Russo get paid and
> especially get paid before the # 3 and # 4 largest
> creditors who are the Griffins themselves.

These things take wild twists and turns, anything can happen, but I'd like to repeat something I said else where ...

... take heart in this .. no matter the outcome, no matter how well the 'tactics' work or don't work, no matter if Grosjean is able to collect in full or not, no matter if criminal charges follow or not, no matter .. you can take it to the bank that the Griffin's personal life is a living nightmare right now, consumed by putting together a battle plan, knowing it may or may not be successful, and losing a whole lot of sleep for months to come.

Further, I'll bet no new contracts are forthcoming and the ones with time still left to run are looking for ways out of them. Chapter 11, are you kidding me? I'll bet this turns to a Chapter 7 filing before we know it.

[Victoria]

> .. you can take it to the bank that the Griffin's
> personal life is a living nightmare right now,
> consumed by putting together a battle plan, knowing it
> may or may not be successful, and losing a whole lot
> of sleep for months to come.

I agree that a chapter 7 is probably in their future but I am not so sure of the living nightmare. I would love to know (guess we will when they go to court) what those contracts grossed for them. Their overhead is obviously low, so my suspicious mind sees high salaries to the principles, bonus payments, and anything else that has taken money out of the corporation and into the personal accounts of the Griffins. This could all be a well laid out plan, hence no nightmares and the Griffins will land up closing up shop but be very well off financially.

Not sure if it is my time spent in casinos or growing up in the Bronx, but I see devious tactics here.

Victoria

[Cardkountr]

> These things take wild twists and turns, anything can
> happen, but I'd like to repeat something I said else
> where ...

> ... take heart in this .. no matter the outcome, no
> matter how well the 'tactics' work or don't work, no
> matter if Grosjean is able to collect in full or not,
> no matter if criminal charges follow or not, no matter
> .. you can take it to the bank that the Griffin's
> personal life is a living nightmare right now,
> consumed by putting together a battle plan, knowing it
> may or may not be successful, and losing a whole lot
> of sleep for months to come.

> Further, I'll bet no new contracts are forthcoming and
> the ones with time still left to run are looking for
> ways out of them. Chapter 11, are you kidding me? I'll
> bet this turns to a Chapter 7 filing before we know
> it.

Hi Sunrunner,

I hope you're right and the Griffin's are squirming a bit but somehow I think the bankruptcy is a ploy to either outright screw her creditors or to pressure some lessor negotiated amounts.

It just seems odd that a small company with gross receipts of 600k and only 4 employee's occupying the Castita of her home converted into an office isn't netting somewhere in the 250-300k range which should have been sufficient income to satisfy her obligations to creditors over time without filing a chapter 11.

I'm not so sure Beverly didn't seize the opportunity to stiff her lawyer out of the 105K he's owed while at the same time eliminate the Grosjean/Russo judgements. She could then emerge from bankruptcy with a clean slate...although she may not have any casino customers willing to pay her in the future for inaccurate information which could potentially expose more casinos to litigation.

But what does puzzle me is why aren't JG and MR being paid from the proceeds of her liability insurance? As a licensed private investigative firm, they were required by the state of Nevada to carry insurance in the amount of 200K or post a 200K cash bond in a FDIC bank.

Below are exerpts from the private investigator licensing law in Nevada:

NRS 648.135 Licensee to maintain insurance or act as self-insurer; minimum limits of liability; proof.

1. Before issuing any license or annual renewal thereof, the Board shall require satisfactory proof that the applicant or licensee:

(a) Is covered by a policy of insurance for protection against liability to third persons, with limits of liability in amounts not less than $200,000, written by an insurance company authorized to do business in this state; or

(b) Possesses and will continue to possess sufficient means to act as a self-insurer against that liability.

2. Every licensee shall maintain the policy of insurance or self-insurance required by this section. The license of every such licensee is automatically suspended 10 days after receipt by the licensee of notice from the Board that the required insurance is not in effect, unless satisfactory proof of insurance is provided to the Board within that period.

3. Proof of insurance or self-insurance must be in such a form as the Board may require.

(Added to NRS by 1973, 681; A 1985, 1339; 1987, 2137)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PROGRAMS OF SELF-INSURANCE

NAC 648.480 Eligibility. (NRS 648.030, 648.135) To be eligible to maintain self‑insurance, a licensee shall:

1. Place on deposit with a recognized financial institution insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, not less than $200,000 in cash, a certificate of deposit in the same amount or a similar deposit which is acceptable to the Board. The licensee must furnish to the Board evidence of the deposit. No amount of the deposit may be withdrawn unless the withdrawal is cosigned by an authorized agent of the Board.

2. Be financially responsible for all wrongful acts alleged against him and his employees.

3. Provide the Board with the name of his authorized agent in this state who will accept legal process.

(Added to NAC by Priv. Investigator?s Lic. Bd., eff. 1‑27‑89)

NAC 648.485 Statement of scope of coverage. (NRS 648.030, 648.135) A licensee who is self‑insured shall provide the Board with a statement of the scope of coverage provided, including any act for which coverage is not provided.

(Added to NAC by Priv. Investigator?s Lic. Bd., eff. 1‑27‑89)

NAC 648.490 Application for qualification; effective date of program. (NRS 648.030, 648.135)

1. A licensee wishing to qualify as a self-insured licensee must submit an application to the Board. The application must be signed by the licensee or, if the licensee is a corporation, by an officer of the corporation.

2. An application must include:

(a) An audited financial report of the licensee?s business covering the 3 years immediately preceding the date of the application; and

(b) A copy of the licensee?s proposed program of self-insurance.

3. A program of self-insurance becomes effective when it is approved by the Board or the Executive Director.

(Added to NAC by Priv. Investigator?s Lic. Bd., eff. 1‑27‑89; A 4‑22‑93)

NAC 648.495 Insolvency of licensee. (NRS 648.030, 648.135)

1. If a self-insured licensee becomes insolvent, the financial institution in which the deposit required by NAC 648.480 is made shall immediately give written notice to the Board regarding the licensee?s insolvency.

2. Upon receipt of the notice, the Board may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction to have the deposit held for not more than 2 years to pay any claims made against the licensee.

3. If a self-insured licensee becomes insolvent, he may, if allowed by the Board, present evidence to the Board that his program of self-insurance should be allowed to continue. Such evidence must be presented not later than 10 days after the Board receives notice that the licensee is insolvent.

4. For the purposes of this section, a licensee is insolvent if:

(a) The amount of his deposit is reduced below $200,000; or

(b) The financial institution in which the deposit is made has reasonable cause to believe that the deposit will be so reduced.

(Added to NAC by Priv. Investigator?s Lic. Bd., eff. 1‑27‑89)

If for some reason the NGB granted Griffin Investigations a license renewal without having met the proper insurance requirement, wouldn't that expose the NGB to liability for the civil judgement?

[Sun Runner]

I am not dis-agreeing at all with what you and Victoria have related.

When liabilities overwhelm assets, and the income stream will never make up the gap, Chapter seven is the only out.

When there are assets exceeding liabilites, apparently the case here, but the income stream has taken a shot to the solar plexes, again, this also seems the case, then Chapter eleven is the answer to allow you to get up and make your creditors stand back awhile to give you some breathing room.

That's the general idea.

Victoria is right to think that, as the debtor in possession, the Griffins have the ability to continue to get paid, etc. However with a bankruptcy court judge watching (you can only hope he is not a NV judge on the take) and the debtors lawyers watching, it's just not all that easy to run off with the assets.

I'll still maintain that filing BK is not the first thing on Griffin's list of things they wanted to do today -it does make things public and it opens up a lot of their heretofore secrets to the public eye.

We'll see; it should be intereresting. I still maintain they don't sleep all that well right now.
And while Russo and Grosjean no doubt could use the money, who could'nt, I'll bet they are sleeping much better than the debtor in possession. The Griffins have a lot of 'splainin to do and it will be in open court.

[Victoria]

We have all taken our guesses, now time will give us the answer.

Victoria

[Sun Runner]

> We have all taken our guesses, now time will give us
> the answer.

True enough.

Of course they can always withdraw their petition, payoff Grosjean and Russo, struggle along for an appropriate amount of time fighting off their attorneys bill, and file again.

Wild.

[Competition = GOOD/Monopoly = BAD]

These casinos don't need Griffin anymore anyway. All they have to do is add more table management systems, such as mindplay. I have the mindplay brochre and clear as day on the brochure is the player screen which in addition to the usual playing related info is a picture of that player... basically you hand a players card, they put in your number, then bam... there is your picture. The capability is there. I am not sure how the picture is obtained, maybe the tables themselves have embedded cameras? I wouldn't be supprised if the software could be made to interface with facial recognition. Imagine, MGM using Mindplay (or something similar) and you had player's cards at different MGM properties using different names prior to the implementation of the system, then all of a sudden you go to MGM (or one of their properties) one night and you are recognized by face but have 10 different names and now your left with no prayer of attempting to set foot in another MGM property (even if none of the names are tainted, how will you explain all the different comp cards). Even worse, imagine MGM/Harrah's/Boyd/ & Barrick all using something like this... 4 bad nights and you are permeantly burned from 90% of the games in Vegas and several across the country. I am very glad about Griffin, but there are still much more evil things that exist in the gaming industry just waiting to be implemented.

P.S. We need more people like Al Rogers and Bob N. fighting to prevent this from happening. It is nice some of the old "junk" like Griffin is getting a big fat kick in the @$$, but the new "junk" is much more detrimental to a skilled players longevity!