{"id":141002,"date":"2020-07-06T18:33:53","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T01:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=141002"},"modified":"2020-07-07T09:01:03","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T16:01:03","slug":"circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"Circus Circus Suing AIG Over Coronavirus Losses, Claims Insurance Giant Is Distorting Facts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Circus Circus LV, LP — a holding company for the Las Vegas Strip venue of the same name — is suing American International Group (AIG). It joins a parade of companies pursuing litigation against insurance providers refusing to cover losses stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"Circus
Billionaire Phil Ruffin, seen here at the Republican National Convention in 2016, owns Circus Circus, a venue that’s suing its insurance provider over COVID-19 claims. (Image: Associated Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a suit filed in the US District Court for the District of Nevada last week, Phil Ruffin’s company<\/a> said AIG is denying coverage under an all-risks policy the gaming operator has with the insurance provider.<\/p>\n

“AIG relies on sleight-of-hand, distortions of fact, and contortions of law to escape from Circus Circus’s covered claim,\u201d<\/strong> said attorneys for Circus Circus in court documents. \u201cBut no illusion or death-defying feat can alter the plain language of AIG’s policy and the broad all-risks coverage that it provides.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

This isn’t the first time the billionaire Ruffin has been down this road with an insurance company. In May, Treasure Island LLC filed litigation against Affiliated FM Insurance Co. in the same district court, levying similar allegations against that insurance firm as Circus Circus is making against AIG.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ruffin, who’s worth roughly $3 billion, owns Treasure Island and a 50 percent interest in the non-gaming Trump International Hotel Las Vegas. Last October, he paid $825 million<\/a> to acquire Circus Circus from MGM Resorts International.<\/p>\n

Industry Group Claims Losses Are ‘Uninsurable’<\/h2>\n

Within weeks of the coronavirus pandemic becoming part of everyday life in the US, hundreds of businesses of varying sizes, including private and public companies and even the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights group, announced suits against an array of insurance carriers for failure to make good on policies.<\/p>\n

In April, the \u00a0American Property Casualty Insurance Association, a trade association comprised of companies like AIG, said losses from enterprises with 100 or fewer workers reached $431 billion, more than the $71 billion in annual premiums the group collects from those businesses. The trade association said losses suffered at the hands of a pandemic are \u201cuninsurable.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Circus Circus scoffs at that notion. In the court document, counsel for the plaintiff state the gaming operator has an all-risks policy with AIG, protecting against \u201call risks of direct physical loss or damage to Insured Property from a Covered Cause of Loss.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The attorneys assert the term \u201cCovered Cause of Loss\u201d is defined as \u201cperil or other type of loss, not otherwise excluded under this policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Details, Details, Details<\/h2>\n

Circus Circus claims AIG is trying to exploit a pollutants or contaminants clause in the policy. But the casino operator says that applies to chemicals or smoke, not a communicable disease like COVID-19.<\/p>\n

In fact, counsel for the gaming firm claims AIG could have added a communicable disease component to the policy, but the insurance company opted not to do that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The suit doesn’t indicate the monetary damages Circus Circus<\/a> is seeking from AIG. But the policy is supposed to cover $500 million in physical property damage and $96.77 million in lost income.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Circus Circus LV, LP — a holding company for the Las Vegas Strip venue of the same name — is suing American International Group (AIG). It joins a parade of companies pursuing litigation against insurance providers refusing to cover losses stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. In a suit filed in the US District Court for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":141004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCircus Circus Taking AIG to Court Over COVID-19 Coverage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Phil Ruffn's Circus Circus is suing insurance company American International Group, saying the company won't cover coronavirus losses.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Circus Circus Taking AIG to Court Over COVID-19 Coverage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Phil Ruffn's Circus Circus is suing insurance company American International Group, saying the company won't cover coronavirus losses.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-07T01:33:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-07T16:01:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/\",\"name\":\"Circus Circus Taking AIG to Court Over COVID-19 Coverage\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-07T01:33:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-07T16:01:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"Phil Ruffn's Circus Circus is suing insurance company American International Group, saying the company won't cover coronavirus losses.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Billionaire Phil Ruffin, seen here at the Republican National Convention in 2016, owns Circus Circus, a venue that's suing its insurance provider over COVID-19 claims. (Image: Associated Press)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Legal\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Circus Circus Suing AIG Over Coronavirus Losses, Claims Insurance Giant Is Distorting Facts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\",\"name\":\"Todd Shriber\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Todd Shriber\"},\"description\":\"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Circus Circus Taking AIG to Court Over COVID-19 Coverage","description":"Phil Ruffn's Circus Circus is suing insurance company American International Group, saying the company won't cover coronavirus losses.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Circus Circus Taking AIG to Court Over COVID-19 Coverage","og_description":"Phil Ruffn's Circus Circus is suing insurance company American International Group, saying the company won't cover coronavirus losses.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2020-07-07T01:33:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-07-07T16:01:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Todd Shriber","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@etfgodfather","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Todd Shriber","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/","name":"Circus Circus Taking AIG to Court Over COVID-19 Coverage","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR.jpg","datePublished":"2020-07-07T01:33:53+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-07T16:01:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85"},"description":"Phil Ruffn's Circus Circus is suing insurance company American International Group, saying the company won't cover coronavirus losses.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/PR.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"Billionaire Phil Ruffin, seen here at the Republican National Convention in 2016, owns Circus Circus, a venue that's suing its insurance provider over COVID-19 claims. (Image: Associated Press)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/circus-circus-taking-aig-to-court-over-covid-19-coverage\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Legal","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Circus Circus Suing AIG Over Coronavirus Losses, Claims Insurance Giant Is Distorting Facts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85","name":"Todd Shriber","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-11-96x96.png","caption":"Todd Shriber"},"description":"Todd Shriber is a senior news reporter covering gaming financials, casino business, stocks, and mergers and acquisitions for Casino.org. Todd got his start in financial markets as a reporter with Bloomberg News. Later, he became a trader at a Southern California-based long\/short hedge fund, where he specialized in the trading sector and international ETFs leading up to and during the financial crisis. He joined Casino.org in 2019. Currently, Todd analyzes, researches, and writes on ETFs for various web-based publications and financial services firms. Shriber has been featured and quoted in Barron's, CNBC.com, and The Wall Street Journal. His work can also be found on Benzinga, ETF Daily News, ETF Trends, MarketWatch, Fox Business, and Nasdaq.com. He currently resides in Las Vegas, where he enjoys golf and taking his black lab to the dog park. He's also an avid sports fan and likes to wager on college football and the NBA. You can also find him at the three-card poker and roulette table, even though he knows better. Contact Todd at todd.shriber@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/todd-shriber","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/toddshriber\/","https:\/\/x.com\/etfgodfather"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/todd-shriber\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}