The Station Casinos are local favorites among resident Las Vegas gamblers who frequent them for their cheap rooms, cheap food, and generous players club promotions. They’ve long been a regular feature in the most off-strip locations of Sin City, making it unlikely that the trendier tourists even know they exist, but there can be no doubt there would be a hole in the American gambling industry should the eighteen popular casinos suddenly close their doors. And closure is certainly a possibility with Station Casinos filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday.

The Station Casinos went under new ownership in 2007, but the profitability of the casino chain was greatly diminished by the recent recession. Fortunately all of Station Casinos’ partners and casino operating units were spared the same fate, and the company has already been approved to borrow an additional $150 million. While these factors will spare the casinos from immediate closure, if the economy doesn’t improve soon or if the company does not find a more effective way to restructure its debt then future closures or sellouts seem likely.

This latest bankruptcy comes on the heels of several other filings made by large Vegas gambling operations like the historical Tropicana and the once-powerful Trump Entertainment Resorts.