Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

Gary Loveman, a local executive and former Harvard professor who now runs the nation's largest casino operator, stands to reap a $62 million windfall should he leave his job amid a blockbuster gambling industry takeover. Loveman, who lives in Boston's suburbs, has guided Harrah's Entertainment to the top of the gambling heap in Las Vegas over the past few years. Masterminding a blockbuster acquisition of Caesars, he created a global gambling powerhouse. Now a group of private investment companies has struck a $27.8 billion deal to acquire Harrah's and take the publicly traded company private. And Loveman, if he decides to pull the strings of his golden corporate parachute, could walk away with at least $62 million in company stock, according to documents filed by Harrah's with federal regulators. No decision is likely to be made for another year, until after the acquisition of Harrah's by Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management is complete. "I think $62 million is doing very, very well in life," said William Thompson, a professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and a gambling industry expert. "He is right up there with the best baseball pitchers." But one top gambling expert believes that Loveman, despite the lure of an instant fortune, might be better off staying. After all, life is pretty good as it is. Loveman last year took down a more-than-$6 million pay package - not counting lucrative stock options. It includes company-paid lodging in Vegas, and $462,218 for the use of company jets to support a jet-setting lifestyle split between the Bay State and Nevada. And, unlike many chief executives who find themselves out of a job after a merger, Loveman is likely to have the option to stay on if he chooses. The private investors who are buying Harrah's are likely to want Loveman to stick around, at least for a couple more years, Thompson believes. After all, he created the gambling empire they are now buying, and has emerged as a very vocal industry spokesman for the virtues of casinos, he said. If Loveman opts to stay, he could see his compensation rocket up to $10 million to $20 million a year, Thompson said. And with Harrah's no longer a public company the details of his pay, unlike now, will no longer be disclosed.