By Mark Waite

The Golden Gaming takeover of Terrible’s Town and Terrible’s Lakeside Casinos took a major step forward Wednesday, as the Nevada Gaming Control Board recommended approval of the acquisition by a 3-0 vote.

The application now goes to the Nevada Gaming Commission, which is scheduled to take up the matter Feb. 23.

Golden Gaming officials announced in September they entered into an agreement to acquire the two casinos along with the slot route operations of Affinity Gaming. It would make Golden Gaming by far the dominant player in the Pahrump casino market.

Under the plan, Golden Gaming will sell its three casinos in Colorado to Affinity Gaming.

Terrible’s Town opened in Pahrump in June 1996, Terrible’s Lakeside in December 1998 with an accompanying recreational vehicle park and seven-acre lake. Terrible’s was formerly owned by Herbst Gaming LLC, which became Affinity Gaming LLC after restructuring following Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

Golden Gaming took over the Pahrump Nugget Hotel and Casino in October 2006, a casino that first opened in March 2001.

The transfer of slot operations by Herbst Gaming from E-T-T Limited Liability Corporation to Golden Gaming would mean Golden Gaming will operate 8,500 gaming devices in Nevada across 640 locations.

Golden Gaming representatives told the board they intend to retain all the employees at Terrible’s Town and Terrible’s Lakeside. With the merger, Golden Gaming will have 2,000 employees, by far the largest employer in Pahrump.

“It was pretty straightforward. This is a fairly complex set of things that happened with Affinity and E-T-T and the bankruptcy. So I think what happened this month was the clarification of all the pieces of that puzzle,” Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Mark Lipparelli said.

Besides the casinos changing hands, Golden Gaming ended up with a portion of what used to be the E-T-T slot route business and the Herbst family ended up with a portion of their former slot route business, Lipparelli said.

The Las Vegas Sun reported attorney Dennis Kennedy brought up an agreement with Golden Gaming Chief Executive Officer Blake Sartini to purchase the Roadrunner bar and restaurant in Las Vegas, an agreement that fell through. A civil trial is scheduled on a breach of contract suit.

“Companies are always engaged in litigation and we always evaluate it,” Lipparelli said.

He indicated approval of the license for the takeover was a routine process, since Sartini has held a gaming license since he left Station Casinos 12 years ago.

But the chairman addressed the acquisition in more of an overall view of the health of the gaming industry in Nevada.

“There has been, at least for the past two years, a string of these reorganizations and emergence from bankruptcy,” Lipparelli said. “I think in this case, the changed entities are normally coming out in much better shape. Hopefully this will continue and we’ll be on the upswing instead of the downswing.”

The application for a non-restricted gaming license for Terrible’s Lakeside is for slot machines only.

The applications include the receipt of a percentage of the gaming revenue from the race and sport books at Terrible’s Town and Terrible’s Lakeside operated by Brandywine Bookmaking LLC dba Lucky’s.

The application included converting Golden Gaming Inc. from a corporation to a limited liability company to be known as Golden Gaming LLC.

Another application asks for Golden Gaming LLC to be registered as an intermediary company. Sartini Gaming Inc. has an application to transfer the equity interests in Golden Gaming LLC to 77 Golden Gaming LLC.

Then there is an application by 77 Golden Gaming LLC to grant a possessory security interest in the equities securities of Golden Gaming LLC to ABC Funding, in conjunction with the second lien credit agreement and with Wilmington Trust, in conjunction with the fourth amended and restated credit agreement.

The company is asking to pledge its equity interest in Golden Route Operations LLC, Golden Tavern Group LLC and Golden Pahrump Nugget LLC to ABC Funding LLC and Wilmington Trust, in conjunction with those lien and credit agreements. E-T-T LLC has an application to grant a possessory security interest in Cardivan LLC and Corral Country Coin LLC to ABC Funding LLC.

The application lists Golden Gamin’s 40 PT’s pubs among the company’s holdings.