http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/st...011004793.html
By CHRISTINA ALMEIDA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 10, 2004
LAS VEGAS (AP) - A landmark hotel-casino was closed indefinitely Saturday after federal agents shut down the casino floor and seized an estimated $500,000 to pay for unpaid employee benefits.
The front doors were locked and yellow police tape greeted visitors to Binion's Horseshoe Hotel & Casino, a downtown Las Vegas fixture for 52 years and home to the wildly popular World Series of Poker.
"It's the end of an era," said Jim DiGiorgio, an adult film director who was among the guests told to find a new hotel Saturday.
Some 900 Binion's employees were left without work after owner Becky Binion Behnen agreed to close the property until she could find enough money to reopen it, said Keith Copher, chief enforcement officer of the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Gamblers watched in disbelief Friday night as U.S. marshals shut down the casino floor. The agents were enforcing a court order against the property, which has not paid about $3 million in pension and health insurance benefits since last summer for an estimated 400 union employees, said D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Union Local 226.
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