Herbst Gaming CFO Mary Beth Higgins leaves company

Herbst Gaming Chief Financial Officer Mary Beth Higgins resigned from the company Thursday and will take a similar role with Global Cash Access, which provides automated teller machines and other cash distribution services to the gaming industry.
 
Higgins’ departure from Herbst, which is expected to emerge from bankruptcy later this year under new leadership, follows that of her brother, former company general counsel Sean Higgins, who joined the law firm of Gordon and Silver a few months ago.
 
Sean Higgins is still representing Herbst Gaming in its legal matters.
 
Mary Beth Higgins had been Herbst Gaming’s CFO since 2000.
 
Herbst Gaming is awaiting regulatory approval in Nevada, Iowa, and Missouri after the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Reno approved the company’s plan of reorganization, which will turn over operations to its primary lending group.
 
The Herbst brothers, Ed, Tim and Troy, who founded and built the casino and slot machine route operation, lost all ownership and control of the company in the bankruptcy plan that was approved by the court in January.
 
The Herbsts’ first proposed a reorganization plan that would have left them with controlling interest in the company’s 600-location, 6,800-machine Nevada slot route, giving the casinos to its primary lenders.
 
In the end, the lenders, after noteholders balked at the original plan, took everything.
 
Along with the slot route operation, Herbst has 12 casinos in Nevada, a casino in Iowa and two casinos in Missouri. The bankruptcy reorganization wiped $1.1 billion in debt off the books but left a consortium of lenders, including a Connecticut-based hedge fund, owning the business.
 
A new board of directors will govern the company, which operates the off-Strip Terrible’s and three Primm Resorts.
 
Herbst Gaming President Ferenc Szony and will manage the new operation with former Coast Casinos executive David Ross.