Caesar's Without A Paddle

I was surprised by this little news item from the other day. I didn't realize how far up the creek they were:

Casino giant Caesars Entertainment Corp. placed its largest unit under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Chicago on Thursday, leaving it to a judge to settle the bitter dispute among the company’s creditors and the investment firms whose buyout left the unit with $18.4 billion in debt.

The move follows months of fierce negotiations with creditors and years of declining performance at Caesars, once the world’s largest gambling company. It struggled after a 2008 leveraged buyout that crippled its balance sheet right as the financial crisis hit. The parent company has posted losses for each of the last four years, and its total liabilities have climbed to $28.2 billion.