any has plans to acquire Horseshoe Gaming for $1.45 billion. The company also acquired a 95 percent interest in Louisiana Downs, a Thoroughbred racetrack near Shreveport. Harrah's Entertainment plans to expand Louisiana Downs so that the facility will include a major casino and hotel, in addition to the horseracing track ("Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. Overview", 2004).
The company also opens new casino properties and expands existing facilities when conditions support such a strategy. Harrah's Entertainment opened a new hotel tower at its Atlantic City casino in 2003. In a joint venture with British Gala Group of the United Kingdom, Harrah's plans to build eight casinos in that country; the first of which will open in 2005. The company's casino facilities have an aggregate 14,000 guest rooms and suites, 100 restaurants, and 41,700 slot machines in facilities located in 13 states ("Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. Overview", 2004).
Harrah's Entertainment also plans to initiate an Internet-based gambling operation. The Web site will operate under the name "Lucky Me", and will be a subscription-based Web location. The subscription-based ecommerce model is intended to satisfy regulatory objections to Internet-based gambling in the United States ("Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. Overview", 2004).
Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company operates 23 major casinos, seven of which are located in Nevada. The distribution of the company's 2003 revenues by service classification is summarized in Exhibit 1, which may be found below on the following page. As the data presented in Exhibit 1 indicate, the importance of casino operations to Harrah's Entertainment cannot be overstated. At the same time, however, it must be borne in mind that the minor revenue generators provide services that make the casino operations more attractive to customers. Further, the customer allowances play a major role in ...