Harrah's Entertainment Inc.'s former
headquarters and current corporate offices
Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. is a private
gaming corporation that
owns and operates
casinos, hotels, and six
golf courses under several
brands.
The
company, based in Las Vegas
, Nevada
, is the
largest gaming company in the world, with yearly revenues around
$10.8 billion. Harrah’s is owned by
Hamlet Holdings (
Apollo Management and
Texas Pacific Group). While Apollo and
TPG own a large majority, Blackstone Group LP owns a minority stake
in Harrah's. Recorded on
November 1,
1995.
History
William F. Harrah era (1937–1978)
The
company known as Harrah's Entertainment was founded on October 30, 1937 as a small
bingo parlor in Reno
, Nevada operated by
William F. Harrah. The company went public in 1971
with 450,000 shares.
Following that, in 1972, it was listed on the
American Stock
Exchange
and in 1973 Harrah's became the first casino
company listed on the New York Stock Exchange
.
Company founder
William F.
Harrah died in 1978.
Post William F. Harrah era
- February 1980 – Holiday Inns, Inc.
acquires Harrah's, Inc. who operated two hotel casinos in Reno and
Lake Tahoe, the auto collection in Reno and private residences. The
auto collection was the largest in the world, a frequent source of
vehicles for Hollywood movie producers and a major tourism draw to
the city of Reno. Liquidation of the assets in that collection,
including almost 7,000 antique automobiles, reportedly returned the
full purchase price of both hotels and casinos to Holiday Inn.
Holiday
Inn at the time had 1,600 hotels and interests in two casinos, a
casino under construction in the marina district in Atlantic City
, New
Jersey
, and a 40 percent ownership interest in River Boat Casino, Inc., a casino adjacent
to the Holiday Inn hotel on the Las Vegas Strip
. In November, Harrah's
Marina
opens.
- May 1988 – Gary Loveman joins the organization as Chief
Operating Officer.
- January 1990 – Bass PLC acquires the
Holiday Inn hotel business and The
Promus Companies is created to retain the remaining assets and
brands. Promus stock began trading a month later (NYSE:PRI).
- April 1992 – Harrah's acquires its first Las Vegas property as
Holiday Las Vegas is converted to a Harrah's casino.
- June 1995 – The company is renamed to Harrah's Entertainment,
Inc. following the split off of the Promus hotel brands (Embassy
Suites, Hampton Inn, and Homewood Suites).
Harrah's former logo
- January 1, 1999 – Harrah's closed the
purchase of the Rio All Suite Hotel and
Casino
and Rio Secco Golf
course for $888 million giving the company 2 casinos in Las
Vegas. Later that year, the company moved its headquarters
from Memphis, Tennessee to Las Vegas.
- June 2003 – the Harrah's casino in Vicksburg, Mississippi is
sold.
- June 13, 2005 – Harrah's completed the takeover of Caesars Entertainment. While the
companies were not required to divest any properties, they did sell
several properties before the merger was completed. This merger
made Harrah's the largest gambling company with over 4 million
square feet (370,000 m²) of casinos, almost 100,000 employees and
over 40 casinos. Later that month, the company announced that they
would consolidate all their brand names under the Harrah's, Rio,
Caesars, and Horseshoe brands. The company also took ownership of
the Caesars Palace at Sea
operations on Crystal Cruises ships.
Some
standalone names, like Paris Las Vegas
are likely to be retained. The rebranding of
the two remaining Bally's properties in the company is scheduled,
but a specific time line has not been disclosed. This acquisition
takes the number of casinos owned by Harrah's in Las Vegas from 2
to 6.
- September 2005 – Harrah's Pride of Lake
Charles was severely damaged by Hurricane Rita. One riverboat was pushed
completely onshore, and the other is at the Port of Lake Charles
awaiting repairs. All of the restaurants and support buildings were
destroyed. Harrah's estimates that the rebuilding will take 2
years.
- November 29, 2005 – Harrah's Entertainment announced plans to
sell the Flamingo Laughlin to
AREP Boardwalk Properties
LLC. The $170 million sale closed on May 19, 2006. As a
condition of the sale, the property is to be renamed the
Aquarius within 6 months.
- December 2005 - Harrah’s acquires the Imperial Palace Hotel
& Casino in Las Vegas for $370 million. The Imperial Palace
occupies an 18.5-acre site directly between Harrah’s Las Vegas and
the Flamingo. A year later the company announced that they intended
to implode the IP, but later that decision is rescinded. This
acquisition takes the number of casinos owned by Harrah's in Las
Vegas from 6 to 7.
- April 23, 2006 – a scavenger hunt style promotion called
"Treasure Hunt" ended when an accident seriously hurt one employee
and tourist, and killed one tourist. The accident happened when a
robbery suspect fleeing police hit a mini-van carrying the Harrah's
employee and tourists.
- May
26, 2006 – in Las Vegas, NV, Harrah's acquired a site behind, but
not adjacent to the Imperial Palace
with frontage on Koval Road. The cost for
the land was $164.4 million. The site is currently occupied by the
Desert Club Apartments.
- February 2007 Barbary Coast (the 7th casino in Las Vegas) is
acquired in a land swap with Boyd Gaming and is renamed Bill's
Gamblin' Hall and Saloon, named after company founder Bill Harrah.
The new casino is very small, but provides another piece of
contiguous land for future development in Las Vegas.
- November 2007 - Harrah's acquired the Orient Golf Club on the
Cotai Strip in Macau for approximately US$580M. The land area is
roughly 180 acres.
- Jan 2008 - Harrah's assumes a $20 billion in debt when private
equity firms Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group acquired the
company.
- April 9, 2008 – Harrah's Entertainment's board of directors
approved a corporate name change to Caesars Entertainment Corporation.
This change will capitalize on the international name recognition
enjoyed on the Caesars name brand. The Harrah's brand remains one
of the company's three primary casino brands.
- September 16, 2009 - Harrah's buys $140 million in debt of the
Planet Hollywood Casino which is next to their Las Vegas
properties. It is wildly assumed that this step is the first in a
hoped for acquisition of the property to be the 8th casino in Las
Vegas. Harrah's assembled all 8 of its existing Las Vegas
properties, by purchasing existing resorts beginning in April 1992.
Although it was widely announced in previous years that the company
planned to implode properties and build new ones from scratch.
Conceding that the company had little experience in building major
resorts, it developed Project Link in 2009, which calls
for retaining and improving all existing buildings while adding a
collection of about 20 restaurants and bars to be built along a
winding corridor between the company’s O’Sheas and Flamingo
casinos, on the east side of the Strip. It is an attempt to create
the kind of entertainment district that has developed organically
in cities such as Los Angeles, Memphis and New Orleans yet is
lacking on the Strip, with its enclosed, casino-centric zones.
Properties
See also
References
-
http://www.blackstone.com/private_equity/corp_pe/portfolio.asp?Order=ByPortfolioCompany&ll=h&ul=m
External links
opens;* November: Harrah's Vicksburg and Harrah's Tunica open.
opens; May sees the consolidate of two Mississippi
properties into the new Tunica Mardi
Gras; September: Total Gold is
launched; October: Harrah's completes $200 million expansion to Las
Vegas; November: Harrah's Cherokee Smoky
Mountains opens.
and renames one property to Harrah's East Chicago. The
company later sold the Showboat Hotel & Casino and
the Sydney Showboat.
, but immediately sold it on March 11, 2004, to MTR Gaming Group retaining the valuable
rights to the Horsehoe brand and the World Series of Poker. Later in
2004, Harrah's closed on the purchase of Horseshoe Gaming Holding
Corporation.
. Following approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), state gaming commissions and by shareholders, the stock (NYSE HET) was delisted
on January 28, 2008 and the company was taken private by Hamlet
Holdings.
would be renamed as Caesars Windsor
and would receive multiple upgrades to the physical
premises.
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