By Mike Tony
For HDMedia
The Greenbrier’s casino was hours away from going dark.
Even after narrowly avoiding that fate, its future may still not be bright.
The West Virginia Lottery Commission tried to guard against that possibility Tuesday afternoon by intervening with an emergency meeting via phone conference to renew the Greenbrier Hotel Corp.’s limited gaming facility license — while also putting the establishment “on a watch” due to financial and operational concerns.
The casino’s state license was set to close at Tuesday’s end due to the Justice family-controlled Greenbrier’s failure to submit required audit information that Lottery Commission officials said was due around March 20 to allow ample time before the June 30 license expiration.
Justice family business attorney Steven Ruby told the Lottery Commission at a meeting Friday that “a significant amount of staff turnover” this year “created difficulties for the accounting and finance departments,” resulting in The Greenbrier’s delay in submitting the required information.
The commission voted not to renew the license as of Friday at that meeting but indicated it would call a special emergency meeting with notice to the Secretary of State’s Office to take up the renewal as close as possible to the June 30 license expiration.
It did so Tuesday, notifying the Gazette-Mail that morning of a 2:30 p.m. emergency meeting via phone deemed in an agency agenda “necessary to ensure uninterrupted operation of” The Greenbrier “to prevent any disruption in services or revenue that could adversely affect the financial stability of the State of West Virginia.”
At the emergency meeting, Chris Lambert, outside financial consultant with Charleston-based accounting firm Suttle & Stalnaker, reported the Justice Family Group LLC, which holds the casino, hotel and other Greenbrier properties, was profitable on a lesser level than the previous year and recommended the company “go on a watch” until it has its debt refinanced, reporting that its liabilities nearly tripled from $90 million in 2024 to $260 million in 2025.
“So some issues there, because we have negative working capital of about $240 million,” Lambert told the commission.
‘They have taken money out of the hotel’
Lambert reported to the commission that the Justice Family Group has had continued growth in the “notes receivable related party,” referring to a connected party a company has made a written promise to repay.
“And really, what that means is that they have taken money out of the hotel, out of the entity, and loaned it to other related parties that are controlled by the Justice family,” Lambert said, eliciting laughter from an unidentified person on the call.
Lambert’s observation fits with the contention of an international hotel chain affiliate looking to take over The Greenbrier that the Justice family has been diverting significant amounts of revenue generated from the resort to other, unrelated family businesses, resulting in substantial, unpaid taxes for the resort and not making required health insurance and 401(k) contribution payments for resort employees.
That affiliate of Omni Hotels and Resorts, White Sulphur Springs Holdings LLC, bought $289 million in loans related to entities in which Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., had an interest, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing in March from the seller of the loans, Carter Bankshares Inc., parent company of Martinsville, Virginia-based Carter Bank.
In an unresolved case in which it seeks a court-ordered receiver to take over the Justice family’s Greenbrier properties, White Sulphur Springs Holdings submitted testimony in May from public accountant Brian Ong, FTI Consulting senior managing director, that from 2017 to 2024, over $204 million — 96% of Greenbrier firm parent company Justice Family Group cash flow — was transferred to parties outside Justice Family Group, including coal mining and agricultural entities unrelated to the Greenbrier Resort.
At Tuesday’s emergency Lottery Commission meeting, Lambert reported the Justice Family Group had loans that had matured as of April 1 and were not refinanced.
Lambert said he had “no reservations” about recommending the commission relicense The Greenbrier’s casino but advised “that they go on a watch until they have their debt refinanced, so that we can see that that has normalized and stabilized.”
Michelle Painter, West Virginia Lottery chief financial officer, agreed, noting the company’s reported information being over three months late, the staff turnover cited by Ruby and “the working capital issue.”
Being on financial watch, Painter said, would mean the Lottery Commission would expect quarterly audited income statements for the casino to be reviewed by Suttle & Stalnaker, with the first to come in from mid-September to early October.
Lambert reported Justice Family Group revenue of roughly $158 million and income of just over $9 million.
“It is a decrease from the prior year, but they are profitable,” Lambert said.
Lambert said revenues for The Greenbrier casino were nearly $15 million for 2025 with expenses of $7.8 million with a net income of $6.9 million, consistent with previous reports.
The commission subsequently approved renewing the Greenbrier casino license subject to “being on financial watch,” prompting Ruby to express appreciation for the commission staff’s work “on getting this process completed on a little bit of a compressed time frame[.]”
“I’m glad that we’ve come to a good decision and move forward with this, and have no impact to the people of West Virginia that are familiar with and take part in The Greenbrier’s activity,” Lottery Commission Chairman Kenneth Greear said to conclude the meeting.
The Greenbrier started operating both video lottery and table games in October 2009.
The resort contributed a $1.8 million transfer to the state for Fiscal Year 2025, according to a West Virginia Lottery financial report for fiscal years ending in 2024 and 2025.
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