Documents show Caesars' Chester casino is one of its least profitable

As Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. - which owns 99.5 percent of Harrah's Philadelphia - negotiates with lenders over how to restructure its debilitating $18.43 billion debt load, the Chester property appears to be sitting on the sidelines.

Bank lenders owed $5.4 billion on Thursday evening released documents detailing proposals that would wipe out as much as $10 billion in Caesars bank and bond debt, but Harrah's Philadelphia's $330 million in bonds remain whole under the plans.

That is likely because two local investors who developed the project - Kevin Flynn, of Philadelphia, and George K. Miller Jr., of Atlantic City - each still own 0.25 percent of Harrah's Philadelphia, preventing it from being lumped in with the 20 U.S. properties owned outright by Caesars Entertainment Operating Co.

The Chester casino, which could lose a significant chunk of business when Live! Hotel & Casino opens in South Philadelphia, stands out amid Caesars Entertainment Operating properties in other ways, too.

The documents also show that Harrah's Philadelphia is Caesars' second-biggest casino in terms of slot machines, with 2,800. The biggest is Horseshoe casino in Hammond, Ind.

On the downside, Harrah's Philadelphia's estimated 15 percent operating profit margin this year makes it one of Caesars' least-profitable operations outside Atlantic City, where Caesars on Friday sold the shuttered Showboat to Richard Stockton College for $18 million.

That 15 percent margin compares with 20 percent in 2007, the year the Chester casino opened. The operating profit margin at Caesars Entertainment Operating Co.'s Atlantic City casinos has plummeted from 25 percent in 2007 to an estimated 4 percent this year, the documents show.