Harrah's Buys Another Casino Property

By Bob Pajich

Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. is set to add another jewel to its crown of properties today after the Federal Trade Commission gave the company permission to move forward in purchasing the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The sale still must be approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission. Assuming all the necessary approvals are received without any hitches, Harrah's expects to take control of the property by the end of the year.
Law requires a waiting period to take place on certain acquisitions to give the FTC and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division time to look into the deal. Harrah's requested and received permission from the FTC to waive the waiting period in this case.

The Imperial Palace, one of the older properties located on the Las Vegas Strip, has just gone through a multimillion-dollar renovation in which all of its 2,700 guest rooms and almost all of its public areas were updated.

The hotel, which opened in 1979, is famous for its collection of classic cars that anyone can purchase. The casino recently put a 1954 Chrysler New Yorker once owned by Howard Hughes on the auction block.

The front tower of the hotel was finished in 1981 and construction continued in three phases over the decade.

Harrah's, which opened its first casino in Reno in 1938, has aggressively expanded its operations all over the United States in recent years. It became the world's largest casino operator after it bought Caesar's Entertainment, Inc. for $5.2 billion in cash and stock in the summer of 2004.

The purchase added 18 Caesar's properties to the 26 Harrah's owned or managed before the purchase. Outside of Nevada, Atlantic City, and Mississippi, which are the nation's top three gaming markets, Harrah's operates casinos in Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. It also owns casinos in Canada and Uruguay and has plans to move into Britain.

It also bought Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Nevada early in 2004 to take ownership of the World Series of Poker brand. The 2004 WSOP final table of the main event was the last time the WSOP would be played at Binion's. In March of this year, Harrah's sold the Horseshoe to MTR Gaming Group Inc of West Virginia for $20 million. Harrah's still serves as a day-to-day operator of the property. It also retains the property rights to "Horseshoe" and "World Series of Poker."

The company reported a net income of $105.8 million in the second quarter of this year.

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