A West Virginia Senator’s Casino Almost Lost Its License. The Story Behind That Near-Miss Is Complicated
The Greenbrier Resort’s casino nearly went dark on July 1, but a series of events prevented it.
The West Virginia Lottery Commission held an emergency conference call on June 30 to approve a last-minute license renewal for the Casino Club at the Greenbrier, the historic 11,000-acre resort in White Sulphur Springs owned by U.S. Senator Jim Justice and his family. The license expired at midnight. The commission approved the renewal hours before that deadline, after the required audit report arrived months past the internal March 20 submission deadline, with the Lottery giving its accounting firm time to conduct a proper review.
The casino will now remain open. It will also submit quarterly financial reports to the Lottery Commission for the remainder of the fiscal year, a condition the commission imposed after its CFO cited the late submission, significant turnover in the Greenbrier’s finance department, and a working capital situation she described as less than ideal.
The license drama is the most recent and visible symptom of a financial situation at the Greenbrier that has been building for years and reached an acute phase this spring, when a Dallas-based hotel company acquired the Justice family’s debt and immediately moved to take control of the resort through federal receivership.
The Winding Journey of the Justice Family and The Greenbrier
Jim Justice bought the Greenbrier out of bankruptcy in 2009, purchasing it from railroad company CSX. He opened the casino in 2010, a star-studded event that drew Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck, Shaquille O’Neal, Lionel Richie, and then-Governor Joe Manchin. Justice became governor himself in 2017, switching parties from Democrat to Republican along the way, and won the Senate seat Manchin vacated in 2024.
His family’s ownership structure divides the Greenbrier among Justice Family Group, with Jim Justice holding 49%, son Jay Justice 30%, and daughter Jill 21%. Jill currently serves as the resort president. Jay manages the family’s coal and agricultural businesses. Carter Bank and Trust, based in Martinsville, Virginia, served as the primary lender for years, reporting the Justice family loans in nonaccrual status, meaning they drew no interest payments and carried serious default risk, so routinely that the bank entered 14 separate forbearance agreements over two years before finally selling the debt.
In early April, Carter sold the loans to a newly formed entity called White Sulphur Springs Holdings, operating under the authority of TRT Holdings, the Dallas-based company owned by billionaire Robert Rowling and his son Blake. TRT’s best-known asset is the Omni Hotels chain. The Rowlings flew to White Sulphur Springs to meet with Justice shortly after acquiring the debt. By their account, the meeting was not smooth. “We went there in good faith to try to work with them,” Blake Rowling told Forbes. “The threatening nature in which they handled the meeting was not in the spirit of partnership.”
A Receivership Fight and a $500 Million Bailout of The Greenbrier
TRT filed a federal receivership motion in April, asking U.S. District Judge Frank Volk to appoint an outside manager to take operational control of the Greenbrier while pursuing a sale or structured resolution. The motion alleged defaults, mismanagement, and what TRT characterized as the Justice family’s systematic diversion of resort revenue to other businesses in their portfolio. Court filings showed a notes receivable line item growing in the Greenbrier’s financial records, indicating that the Justice family was withdrawing funds from the resort and transferring them elsewhere. TRT alleged the loans, now exceeding $360 million after accumulated charges, exceeded the resort’s equity value.
The Justice family fired back with a lawsuit in Greenbrier Circuit Court, alleging TRT had orchestrated a deceptive takeover, reneged on an agreed-upon payoff arrangement of approximately $341 million, and used confidential financial information obtained during deal discussions against them. The federal case is largely paused while the Justice family pursues a refinancing arrangement with Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, a New York credit firm, for up to $500 million. Judge Volk set July 16 as a closing deadline with the explicit warning that his patience would not extend much further.
As of the latest court filing, attorneys for the Justice family said closing could require the week of July 20 due to the complexity of the transaction and the need for the West Virginia Lottery Commission to review how the financing deal would affect the casino license. The Lottery Commission review of the Kennedy Lewis transaction is now underway. Whether it concludes in time to satisfy Judge Volk is the question currently determining whether the Justice family keeps the Greenbrier.
The Governance Question Nobody Is Quite Asking
The Greenbrier’s situation raises a question at the intersection of casino regulation and Senate ethics that has received little attention in coverage focused primarily on the real estate fight.
Jim Justice is a sitting U.S. Senator representing West Virginia. West Virginia’s gaming regulatory apparatus, including the Lottery Commission that just approved his family’s casino license in an emergency meeting, operates under state government structures that Justice himself helped shape as a two-term governor from 2017 to 2021. His administration oversaw the West Virginia Lottery during that period. He is now the state’s senior senator while his family negotiates with that same Lottery Commission over both a license renewal and a major financing transaction.
The Lottery Commission chairman described the outcome as a good conclusion reached with no impact on the people of West Virginia. That may be exactly right as a matter of casino regulation. The casino is financially viable, the state’s tax revenue continues, and employees keep their jobs. The audit eventually arrived, and the license was renewed on its merits.
But the circumstance of a U.S. Senator’s family casino submitting required audit documents more than three months late, the state Lottery Commission holding an emergency meeting hours before a midnight expiration to approve the license of that Senator’s property, and the same Senator’s family now seeking Lottery Commission approval for a half-billion-dollar refinancing, creates an optics situation that no gaming regulator or Senate ethics observer would have designed by choice.
The Casino Club at the Greenbrier generated nearly $15 million in revenue in 2025 against approximately $7.8 million in expenses, producing roughly $6.9 million in net income. So, the casino is profitable. It is also, according to the same financial report the Lottery Commission reviewed, part of a balance sheet in which the ownership family was actively withdrawing funds from the resort and moving them to other businesses while the resort’s debt exceeded $360 million. The Kennedy Lewis financing, if it closes, resolves the immediate solvency question. It does not resolve the structural one.
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