Downfall
By 1981, Lownes was senior VP in charge of the casinos worldwide, the moneymaking part of the whole Playboy empire. He was leading the effort to open up Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S.A. for gambling from his London base. Work was started on the future Atlantic City Casino building.
However the British had always been uneasy with a foreign controlled casino operating in London. Lownes was (falsely) accused of irregularities by the British gaming authorities. Hefner panicked and before Lownes even appeared before the authorities he was fired in an obvious attempt to save the New Jersey deal. Without him, the British gaming licence was revoked and Playboy lost their most valuable assets. Playboy's temporary gaming licence in Atlantic City was not renewed.
Playboy, which made $31 million in the year ending June 30, 1981 lost more than $51 million in the year ending June 30, 1982. Playboy barely survived.
Read more about this topic: Victor Lownes
Famous quotes containing the word downfall:
“Children demand that their heroes should be fleckless, and easily believe them so: perhaps a first discovery to the contrary is less revolutionary shock to a passionate child than the threatened downfall of habitual beliefs which makes the world seem to totter for us in maturer life.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Show me one thing here on earth which has begun well and not ended badly. The proudest palpitations are engulfed in a sewer, where they cease throbbing, as though having reached their natural term: this downfall constitutes the heart’s drama and the negative meaning of history.”
—E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)