Harrah's Hires Former
Online Gambling Executive
 May
25 -
Once strongly opposed to online gambling, many of America's
leading gambling companies
- that operate casinos in Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City and
elsewhere - have seen the 'online gaming light', one of which is
Harrah's Entertainment,
which recently launched Harrah's Interactive Entertainment.
And heading up
Harrah's Interactive Entertainment,
a subsidiary of Harrah's Interactive designed to tap into the
lucrative online gambling market, will be
online gambling executive, Mitch Garber,
who gained notoriety in the industry by turning PartyGaming Plc
into the world's largest and
most successful online gambling firm.
The Canadian-born
Garber left the Gibraltar-based PartyGaming as CEO last year,
widely rumoured to enter retirement having accrued an enormous
personal fortune. However, he was evidently
made an offer by Harrah's Entertainment that he couldn't refuse,
the terms of which are still confidential.
As the new boss of Harrah's Interactive Entertainment,
one of Garber's main objectives will be the launch of a World
Series of Poker-branded website.
Given the U.S. online gambling ban, the new site will initially
be marketed in the UK and other
online-gambling friendly countries in Europe,
including Italy.
Said Harrah's Entertainment CEO and chairman, Gary Loveman, 'Harrah's
Entertainment is taking a proactive approach toward
international and interactive expansion.
So it is very important that we position ourselves to explore
new markets as well as new technologies with our best in class
brands.
'I do believe that the time has come (re the legalisation of
online gambling), particularly for online poker.
Online poker is a very exciting and very lucrative business
and we are going to work hard to convince elected officials that
this is something
American adults should be free to decide to do,'
he said.
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