After Bill Harrah was caught cheating on a college chemistry exam in 1930, he went to work running the game and soon concluded he could do better than his father, who sold it to him for $500. Here he operated a nickel-and-dime game of dubious legality, loosely based on bingo, in which players sat in a circle and rolled marbles toward a number. The senior Harrah went bankrupt during the Depression and was left with only one asset: a leased building on the honky-tonk Venice pier jutting into the Pacific Ocean. William Fisk Harrah was the son of a Venice, California, lawyer and real estate operator who also had served as mayor of this seaside community. Instead of building new hotel-casino complexes like many of its competitors, Harrah ’s has concentrated on a successful strategy of brand identification and a customer rewards program that helps drive business to Harrah ’s casinos across the country. Harrah ’s prides itself in providing excellent customer service and in bringing technological innovation to the gaming industry. Operating under the Harrah ’s, Rio, and Showboat brand names, Harrah ’s maintains casinos in markets across the United States. is one of the most recognized names in the casino gaming business. Tracing its roots to a small Reno bingo parlor, Harrah ’s Entertainment, Inc. Public Company Incorporated: 1971 as Harrah ’s Employees: 40,000 Sales: $3.5 billion (2000) Stock Exchanges: New York Ticker Symbol: HET NAIC: 72112 Casino Hotels 71321 Casinos

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