Gary Loveman, pauper

Count Harrah’s Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman among the victims of the Great Recession. His total compensation for 2009 plummeted over 85%. The $1.9 million base pay is old news; the ex-prof also had to settle for a mere $3 million in bonuses and $1 million in other goodies. But it’s not like he isn’t earning the dough.

In many respects, Loveman is the casino industry’s most overrated CEO, steering an erratic, ADD-plagued course ever since he took the helm. However, having seemingly painted himself into a corner with a $30 billion LBO, Loveman’s forestalled bankruptcy, renegotiating debt, reworking deadlines and generally clubbing creditors like so many baby seals. The perverse genius of the LBO was that, owed so much money, Wall Street was at Loveman’s mercy. His company might be under siege but he’d taken the bond market hostage and wired the building
to self-destruct. (“You’ll never take me alive, copper!”) Given the reach of Harrah’s, its preponderant presence in several critical markets and the economic devastation that would result from a bankruptcy, Gary Loveman has succeed in creating a company that’s “too big to fail.” In view of that feat, he could plausibly argue that he’s underpaid.

Loveman must be feeling his oats, given that Harrah’s is closing on a modified purchase of Thistledown Rack Track, having renegotiated the price to $43 million from $89.5 million (a 48% markdown). Ohio voters will ponder the question of extending gambling to the Buckeye State’s tracks this fall and both Harrah’s and Penn National Gaming are exuding confidence in the outcome, having each purchased an oval. One question: If Penn is already constitutionally juiced into two of Ohio’s planned four casinos and then adds a racino, do antitrust issues raise their ugly head?

Cosmopolitan is promising a smoother rollout of its technological bells and whistles than was the case with similar applications at Aria. If they’ve got a bigger wish list than budget, as they say, perhaps Job One should be consist of making sure that cell-phone service, WiFi and other on-the-move applications are “All systems go” when the place opens, as opposed to Aria‘s sloppy, dysfunctional debut (at least in those respects). Although some may find Boyd Gaming‘s forms of Internet outreach pretty basic, I like the layman-friendly approach, especially after dealing with some over-designed casino Web sites.