PORT ANGELES — The only nontribal casino in Clallam and Jefferson counties has run out of luck.
Co-owner George Kain and his wife, Joyce, closed Mickey’s Casino on Sunday after several key employees, including cooks, got wind of their shutdown plans and failed to show up for work.
“This is a very sad day,” Joyce Kain, 56, said Monday as she walked through Mickey’s, about half of which is a restaurant and the other half six card tables.
George Kain, 64, said he was unable to completely make his last payroll and has not paid himself a salary for years.
He said he moved to Port Angeles from Wenatchee in 2003 and took over Mickey’s at its former location at 536 Marine Drive — the former Smitty’s restaurant — at the request of the former owners before moving to 1603 E. Front St., the former site of Godfather’s Pizza.
Kain said he had given some draws to some employees and had planned to keep the strapped casino, owned by Central Washington Gaming LLC, open at least until the end of the month. The other nine owners of the company live in Eastern Washington.
Kain was hoping to decide within two weeks whether to expand the restaurant portion of his business and cut back on the hours of some employees but never got the chance.
“Somebody spread the rumor we were going to close before we announced it to anybody,” said Kain, a former respiratory therapist.
On Sunday, no cooks and several other employees did not show up, so he and his wife shut it down for good.
“It was just taken out of our hands,” he said.
Kain partly blamed the recession, saying gamblers who once dropped $100 a night were now spending $20.
Nor did it help, he said, that Mickey’s is geographically sandwiched between two tribal casinos: 7 Cedars to the east in Blyn, run by the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, and the Elwha River Casino to the west on the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation. It opened in March.
His business, which he said on a good night had 40-45 customers, lost $179,000 in 2008.
“With all the taxes we pay, we don’t make any money,” Kain said, the word “Closed” standing alone on the sports bar and grill’s reader board.
“We’re tapped out. It’s not fun.”
With annual gross revenue of about $2 million, Mickey’s employed 43 people and generated an annual payroll of about $800,000, Kain said.
10 percent tax
But unlike other Port Angeles businesses, as a gambling establishment, Mickey’s is subject to a 10 percent tax on gross proceeds.
Kain said he owes those taxes going back to 2008.
City Finance Director Yvonne Ziomkowski said the business owes more than $200,000.
The land and improvements are worth $1.1 million — the land $683,000, the improvements $401,800.
The property is owned by Darrel Vincent of Port Angeles, who said he learned of the shutdown Monday afternoon from a Peninsula Daily News reporter.
Vincent repurchased the property in April after it was foreclosed on and paid the $5,074 in back taxes, he said.
“That’s a bummer that they are closing,” he said, adding the property has been for sale and will stay that way.
“This is very, very sad news.”
The Kains may be forced to move. That depends on whether they can keep their house and if Kain can find a job, he said.
“This was going to be my retirement.”
Mickey’s is not alone among nontribal casinos, said Greg Allen, a state Gambling Commission agent.
“We’ve had quite a number close in the state,” he said.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com