Hustler Casino Live - Nick Vertucci

Just replace Vertucci with Limon, problem solved for HCL.

Sex trafficking and non-consent in porn is a fact, you absolute imbecile.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/por...
https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactio...
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/15/business/...
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/twe...

No Joeingram emergency 10h stream? Zero Polk videos? Poker really is dying.

Just look at them ffs. If these two do not scream shady greaseballs, I do not know who does.

There is nothing preventing a private company from having a board of directors. In fact most do.

I know nothing about the specifics of the governance of HCL. I do suspect that HC, the casino, has much say on operations of HCL.

Yeah you don't get to use the name Hustler Casino without some oversight from Hustler Casino

If you go to High Stakes Poker Production LLC on CA secretary of state, it says that it's owned by 201903WY-50, LLC, which has a registered agent as its organizer. Long story short, who even knows what the corporate structure looks like other than it's an LLC owned by another LLC whose owners are not public.

If I had to guess Hustler Casino Live is a joint venture or partnership between Hustler Casino and HSPP. So probably Hustler Casino has some say and the operators of HSPP have some say.

"Position of power" is an argument founded in resentment and nothing else which is par for the course for California politics.

I disagree. I believe Hustler is a partner to an extent, but they're mostly just leasing out the space and licensed the name but they operate as a separate entity from the rest of the casino. The actual investment into the production was funded by NV and RF, and I agree with prior poster that there very likely was an agreement where NV puts up more money but RF handles the bulk of the day to day which is a substantial undertaking. They have employees whom I believe are paid not by Hustler casino but by the LLC RF/NV created for the venture.

As a business owner myself I am guessing the financials of the company are something like this:
-Initial buying of licensing rights from Hustler which includes a royalty on gross rev and stipulations allowing them decision making power in instances that might impact their gaming license since its on their property(i.e. when Airball was selling chips for cash p2p which was not in line with their anti money laundering laws)
-Equipment costs for production + building set
btwn the above I estimate they paid 250kish ???
revenue:
-Rent paid to Hustler
-Revenue from advertisers
-Revenue from streaming services
-Rake collected each half hour(to my knowledge this is solely earned by the Hustler Live entity)
-Labor for its employees in production(announcers, cameramen, editors, content)
- per hour wage to dealers pre tip(do they take downs in the normal casino floor or only Hustler Live?)

With that being said, I think whats happened the last few days is they announced, (quote from their Twitter) "Effective immediately, Nick Vertucci will no longer be involved with High Stakes Poker Productions. We look forward to continuing to deliver the best high stakes poker content to the community"

The key word being involved, this is a pretty ambiguous term that while seems decisive also leaves the possibility for NV to continue on as a silent partner and simply not being involved in playing on the show or any of the deals/big picture. Unless Ryan was able to buy him out, which could be a possibility as none of us really know what Hustler Live LLC is worth as a corp. Are they making money? How much is their brand worth? Value of partnership contracts etc.

Theres also the very realistic chance that they still haven't turned a profit and NV has been funding it along and he simply gg'd after this since why would he continue funding it after this.

This is how the bulk of LLC's ultimately are structured. You create an LLC in Wyoming due to tax laws and the ability to shield corporate ownership (you only need to have a "registered agent" in the State which you can set up for like $25 a month and a $200 upfront cost for registering + EIN. This LLC then can become the owner of LLC'(s) in other states and the income tax component of it passes thru to Wyoming and you just pay local licensing costs and the state you operates in wage laws

-zero chance hustler casino does not have a rock solid operating agreement with ryan & nick's co., literally zero. i have been a party to agreements similar to this with gaming entitites and national site operators outside of gaming, and its basically a take it or leave it agreement . i learned this after spending about 15k with an attorney to negotiate changes w/ las vegas sands with zero success. take it our leave it. what i am getting at is this: if Hustler Casino wanted to kill the stream tomorrow, they could. in the end, they call the shots. the non-cheating scandal was likely HCL Strike 1 & the problems the nicks/nik Strike 2.

-ca laws prevail over whom deals games on that property, lauren and magic are employees of hustler casino (confirmed). i have seen magic dealing other games.

in wyoming, the llc can be a DAO. nevada is actually a good state for llc's and privacy.

Oh I’m well aware, but some businesses don’t operate that way because they don’t care about having their info public. Also while not all businesses that do this are shady it does make it more likely to be shady.

value of HCL is probably about $5.2 million solely based off youtube subscriber numbers and average view counts/average live viewers. I'd estimate it brings in about $1.3 million in ad revenue a year and a 4x multiple of annual revenue is a pretty standard way to value a digital media business that doesn't have crazy overhead. all of the production staff is extremely replaceable in LA you can just go to pink's hot dogs and find audio technicians, video editors, camera operators etc waiting in line for lunch who will work for low wage. finding a poker commentator is even easier.

you could probably increase the multiple because the business is derisked and the obvious market leader.
in terms of whatever agreement they have it wouldn't have been as difficult to negotiate a deal with hustler when they did as it would be with the venetian lol. the venetian is a huge always successful property in vegas. hustler was basically a dead casino before HCL. you have a lot more leverage in that type of negotiation. you can just say if you don't want to do it we go to hawaiian gardens or commerce and steal the few remaining players you still get.

nobody ever incorporates in california for a lot of reasons but the biggest reason being if you do have to go to court for something, it takes like 4 years to even get the case in front of a judge.

There is pretty much zero chance they are making >1 million a year off ad rev

good point re: sands v. hustler. they would certainly have more leverage with hustler, but hustler has good representation. i know they use lewis brisbois and that firm is no slouch. i just can't get to 5.2m tho. not because your valuation basis is unsound, but who would buy it for that? your right about staffing, nobody is working right now. and ill say again, there is serious $ in everything around that game, just not on the stream

The point I was making is that the CEO wouldn’t report to the board of a private company as he/she would in a public company. The OP asked whether the board could oust the CEO.

As this article from Forbes details, private companies smaller than $100
million rarely have outside boards, which certainly rules out “most” private companies having them.

https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbu...

Even when these large private companies do have outside boards, as the article lays out, they typically have very narrowly defined responsibilities, which wouldn’t include being able to force out a CEO, and certainly not one who hasn’t been charged with a crime or hasn’t yet been the subject of a lawsuit.

the only small firms the size of HCL that have boards are typically non-profits. and that's only because it is required in some states/

The dealers are almost certainly employees of HC casino. I am not sure how licensing works in CA, but the gambling is almost definitely being done under the license issued to HC. I don't HCL has a CA gaming license. If true, then the gaming employees like dealers are licensed and are HC employees.

Also since this is a regulated activity operating under the license CA issued to HC, HC is going to be held by the state for any kind of gaming, employment issues or customer complaints. HC could pass off some to HCL, but most and especially regulated aspects HC is on the hook for.

This is much more than just a lease of space and name license arrangement. HCL is utilizing the HC license so HC is going to have MASSIVE say in how things are done.

You are changing terms...having a board and having an outside board are different. But most companies, even small ones have a board. In the state I live, an LLC is REQUIRED to have a board. I (and wife) have multiple LLC's. The board requirement applies even to single owner LLC's.

In this case, no BOD is needed. As discussed in parallel, HCL is operating under the gaming license of HC. As such, the casino does have say over much of HCL including being able to force out NV. They may not have the explicit power but they can give HCL the option...NV is gone or HCL is gone.

And BTW, if necessary THAT power or decision could come down from the HC BOD but I strongly doubt there was any need for it to go that far. Someone at HC simply made the phone call (or did it in person) under the operating agreement.

Now how far OUT was NV pushed, we don't know. But as far as HC wants him out since they can kill HCL at any moment at their choosing.

But back on point, having a outside board is definintely different but that doesn't mean companies don't have their own internal board. And generally, while the primaries (like NV) would likely be on that board, the others on that board can remove the principal. Wo knowing the structure of such a board (if it exists), we can't say that they did or not. But it is certainly possible.

Not trying to nit pick but often in the case of absent owner(s), a board of directors is not uncommon to be appointed. Duties that include hiring/firing the CEO, who directly reports to the board. As is the case in the organization I work for.

A lot of people would buy it because it’s got to be high profit margin. You can use debt/seller financing and service the debt pretty easily. It’s probably 80-90% profit margin. As for who exactly, idk, it’s LA, a lot of people spend money on media business. A player with a huge roll like Keating could buy it too just to do the same thing as NV and play every show they want to in a lineup that they set.

Don't confuse having a board with having outside directors on a fiduciary board. MOST companies, even small family ones, have a board, have required board meetings and have minutes of these meetings. The meetings may only last 2 min. but they do happen.

It is actually in many states a primary difference between a sole proprietorship and a company (specifically LLC).

(Ask me how I might know this).