Official word about layoffs at Herbst Gaming was hard to come by this week.

Pat Michel, general manager of Terrible's Town Casino, referred inquiries to Sean Higgins, Herbst Gaming legal counsel.

Higgins confirmed Wednesday, published reports the company is laying off 5 percent of its employees, two weeks after a Reno bankruptcy court approved a reorganization plan. That plan will hand over the company to secured lenders that hold $876.5 million in debt.

"That was company wide, any layoffs that we've had occurred at the same time, regardless of where the company is, Pahrump, Las Vegas, Primm," Higgins said.

"People in management positions are still out there running casinos, which we anticipated and expected to do. At the present time there's nothing really further to comment on," he said.

When the company filed for financial reorganization last March, Maya Pagoda, a spokesman for the Los Angeles public relations firm Sitrick and Company, estimated Herbst Gaming had 290 employees working in the Pahrump casinos.

Higgins confirmed published reports from an unidentified employee 200 people were laid off over the weekend at the company's three casinos in Primm. Herbst Gaming acquired Whiskey Pete's, Buffalo Bill's and the Primm Valley Resort in 2007 for $349 million. That same year, Herbst Gaming spent $140 million to buy five casinos in the Reno area.

Passage of anti-smoking legislation in Nevada in November, 2006, high gas prices and the plunge in the economy were blamed for the financial woes that occurred after the massive investment.

Last April, Higgins called it "the perfect storm."

A financial restructuring plan for $847 million in debt submitted in U.S. Bankruptcy Court last March proposed splitting the company, with the Herbst family owning 90 percent of the slot route operation and lenders taking over the casino business. Herbst Gaming filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy March 22. The company continued to operate their businesses as debtors in possession.

That plan fell apart after noteholders rejected it.

Under the reorganization plan approved by Bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive in Reno Oct. 30, the lenders will receive 100 percent of the company equity, including the casinos and slot routes for the outstanding balance of $875.9 million in the amended credit agreement. The plan also calls for the issuance of $350 million in new senior secured bank loans issued by Reorganized Herbst Gaming.

The lenders were represented by Wilmington Trust Co. during the bankruptcy, the new owners have not been disclosed at this time.

The Herbst family -- Tim, Ed and Troy -- will lose their equity in a family trust but remain directors of the company with Troy Herbst the chief executive officer. Troy Herbst was known to many in Pahrump as the driver of the Herbst off-road team during the Terrible's 250 Off-Road Race, which was held in Pahrump until last year.

The Herbst family has had a presence in Pahrump since the opening of the Terrible's Country Store at Highway 160 and Calvada Boulevard. Terrible's Town Casino opened its doors June 25, 1996, the company later acquired the Double Eagle Casino and converted it into Terrible's Lakeside Casino, which opened March 5, 1999.

Herbst Gaming has numerous subsidiaries. Market Gaming Inc. (MGI) runs Terrible's Town Casino, Terrible's Lakeside and RV Park in Pahrump, along with Terrible's Town Casino and Bowl in Henderson and Terrible's Searchlight Casino. Flamingo Paradise Gaming (FPG) owns Terrible's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, which opened in December 2000. ETT owns the slot route. Other subsidiaries operate casinos in Reno, Primm and in the states of Missouri and Iowa.

Gaming revenues have slid sharply with the recession. September was the 21st straight month of declining revenues in Nevada. Statewide gaming wins were down 9 percent in September from the same month a year ago. In Nye County gaming wins from non-restricted licenses, the larger casinos with more than 15 slot machines or table games, fell 11 percent in September 2009 from September 2008 figures.

In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Herbst Gaming reported total income from operations of $7.4 million in the second quarter of 2009 ending June 30, an increase of $40.2 million from a $32.8 million loss in the second quarter of 2008.

The company reported $106.1 million in revenues from slot route operations in the first six months of 2009, a decrease of $22.5 million or 17 percent from $128.6 million for the first half of 2008. The company operates 6,400 slot machines.

The company reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $12 million in the slot operations for the first half of 2009, down 36 percent from $18.7 million in 2008.

Casino operations accounted for 61 percent of revenues. Revenues from casinos totaled $232.9 million in the first half of 2009, a decrease of $8.3 million, or 3 percent, from $241.2 million in 2008.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for Nevada casinos totaled $11.3 million in the first half of 2009, a decrease of $5 million, or 31 percent, from $16.3 million in the first half of 2008.

For southern Nevada casinos the company reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $2.8 million for the six months ending June 30, down $1.4 million from the first six months of 2008.