Red Hawk on the road to financial recovery
By Dale Kasler, Sacramento Bee
Red Hawk Casino’s debts are so crushing, its tribal owner once warned the venue might close and the Legislature had to provide a bailout plan.
Now the Shingle Springs casino could be on the verge of completing a state-assisted financial makeover that would remove many of the doubts about its viability.
If costs are reduced as expected, Red Hawk’s “prospects are pretty good,” said Ken Adams, a gambling industry consultant in Reno.
But even if it stabilizes its finances, Adams said Red Hawk will never approach the profitability of the area’s most successful casino, Thunder Valley in Lincoln. Red Hawk’s Highway 50 location is too far from Sacramento to draw the volume of business seen at Thunder Valley.