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Tropicana forms new board, names Butera as CEO

Fri Jun 6, 2008 8:12pm EDT

LOS ANGELES, June 6 (Reuters) - Casino operator Tropicana Entertainment Holdings LLC, which has filed for bankruptcy, announced on Friday the formation of a new board of directors and appointment of a new chief executive.

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The five-member board includes three outside directors, company President Scott Butera, who has been named CEO, and William Yung, who stepped down as CEO this week but remains on the board.

Tropicana said the new outside directors are merchant banker Thomas Benninger, former Metro Goldwyn Mayer Chief Financial Officer Michael Corrigan, and former New Jersey Casino Control Commission Chairman and CEO Bradford Smith.

The company said the new board is expected to form independent audit and litigation committees as well as a gaming regulatory compliance committee and will consider moving its corporate headquarters to Las Vegas from Kentucky.

Tropicana said Butera joined the company in March to lead the effort to improve its capital structure. He is the former chief operating officer of the partially built Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Prior to that he was president, COO and executive vice president of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2005.

Tropicana, which is privately held and owns a famous casino of the same name in Las Vegas, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.

It marks one of the largest bankruptcies this year and underscores a decline in casinos' fortunes as a gambling boom in the past few years fades in the face of an economic slump. (Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Braden Reddall)

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