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A positive experience
Although it seems unfair on Garber to keep going on about past events, it would be remiss of eGaming Review not to ask about his time at the head of Party-Gaming. What did Garber take out of the experience, is there anything that he would have done differently?
“Party was ultimately a positive experience. I think it’s a particularly well run company that mixes technological progress and regulatory compliance with responsible gaming in a way that forms part of the model for how interactive gaming should be done,” he says.
What about doing things differently if he had his time again? “I don’t think so, I wouldn’t say we did a perfect job but we made a lot of important decisions. Just as in any other big company, some of those decisions rolled well and others didn’t, but if you net it out, in the end the decision making was sound and the company is on very solid ground,” he says.
So much for the past then. As for the future, how did the move to Harrah’s, one of the largest gaming firms in the world, come about? “It was a natural career progression for me. Having run the largest online gaming company in the world and having lived and worked in Europe, it seemed natural to make the move to head up Harrah’s’ push for egaming in Europe.
“I had worked with European governments such as France, Gibraltar and the UK in developing an interactive strategy for Party-Gaming. So working on a global strategy for the World Series of Poker and as part of the world’s largest land-based gaming company is very exciting. I started talking to Harrah’s quite a while ago about overall strategy and philosophy and it evolved into us announcing the launch of Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment (HIE) at the end of May,” he explains.
Prime location
The team at HIE is more or less together and Garber expects to develop a timeline for producing a strong business plan in the near future. “We’re about to get the ball rolling and consolidate our thinking fairly quickly and start executing the pieces of the plan,” he says.
The reason for having HIE’s office in Montreal is obviously due to the fact that it is only five hours behind the European time zone and a few hours of Vegas, where Harrah’s is headquartered. Does this also mean that the company is confident that online gaming will be regulated in the US in the near future? After all, it is one of the main members of the American Gaming Association and must have serious clout when it comes to backing regulation of the sector.
“Montreal’s position halfway between Europe and Vegas is ideal for the job from a strategic point of view,” Garber says. “When it comes to (US) regulation, I’m very confident that legislators will see that this is an industry that can be properly regulated, and that the technology exists to alleviate concerns about money laundering or age verification. I wouldn’t talk about it in dollar terms, but you can imagine Harrah’s is involved in regulatory efforts to see regulated and taxed internet gaming in the US.”
And as for Harrah’s taking part in regulatory efforts in Europe, Garber adds that the largest land-based gambling company in the world becoming involved in pushing for regulation would have to be seen as an advantage for the industry.
When it comes to looking ahead, Garber believes the egaming world will be dominated by “a few strong, global operators” in which Americans will be free to gamble online legally.
“The future of online gaming is going to be not dissimilar from the current situation with land-based gaming. There will be a few, very strong global operators that dominate, and obviously it is Harrah’s strategy to be one of those leading global operators, and to leverage our brands and the expertise of the people that I’m bringing on board to see that that happens.”
There is always a tendency to want to go over past events, even more so when they have happened at the world’s largest egaming company and featured some of the most well-known characters in the industry. But precisely because those events are in the past, for Garber and HIE it’s all about the future. As he says himself: “The idea is that ultimately HIE will be a global business. Today it is not yet a really global business because online gaming is an activity not yet legal in the US, which is the biggest internet market in the world, but the UK and the rest of the EU and the positions they have taken are creating a positive market for opportunity, and we are exploring those opportunities.”
This interview first appeared in the August edition of eGaming Review.
Posted: 10/08/2009
Author:Jake Pollard
Date:10/08/2009
http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/industry/features/255627/ceo-interview-mitch-garber-harrahs-interactive-entertainment.thtml
Although it seems unfair on Garber to keep going on about past events, it would be remiss of eGaming Review not to ask about his time at the head of Party-Gaming. What did Garber take out of the experience, is there anything that he would have done differently?
“Party was ultimately a positive experience. I think it’s a particularly well run company that mixes technological progress and regulatory compliance with responsible gaming in a way that forms part of the model for how interactive gaming should be done,” he says.
What about doing things differently if he had his time again? “I don’t think so, I wouldn’t say we did a perfect job but we made a lot of important decisions. Just as in any other big company, some of those decisions rolled well and others didn’t, but if you net it out, in the end the decision making was sound and the company is on very solid ground,” he says.
So much for the past then. As for the future, how did the move to Harrah’s, one of the largest gaming firms in the world, come about? “It was a natural career progression for me. Having run the largest online gaming company in the world and having lived and worked in Europe, it seemed natural to make the move to head up Harrah’s’ push for egaming in Europe.
“I had worked with European governments such as France, Gibraltar and the UK in developing an interactive strategy for Party-Gaming. So working on a global strategy for the World Series of Poker and as part of the world’s largest land-based gaming company is very exciting. I started talking to Harrah’s quite a while ago about overall strategy and philosophy and it evolved into us announcing the launch of Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment (HIE) at the end of May,” he explains.
Prime location
The team at HIE is more or less together and Garber expects to develop a timeline for producing a strong business plan in the near future. “We’re about to get the ball rolling and consolidate our thinking fairly quickly and start executing the pieces of the plan,” he says.
The reason for having HIE’s office in Montreal is obviously due to the fact that it is only five hours behind the European time zone and a few hours of Vegas, where Harrah’s is headquartered. Does this also mean that the company is confident that online gaming will be regulated in the US in the near future? After all, it is one of the main members of the American Gaming Association and must have serious clout when it comes to backing regulation of the sector.
“Montreal’s position halfway between Europe and Vegas is ideal for the job from a strategic point of view,” Garber says. “When it comes to (US) regulation, I’m very confident that legislators will see that this is an industry that can be properly regulated, and that the technology exists to alleviate concerns about money laundering or age verification. I wouldn’t talk about it in dollar terms, but you can imagine Harrah’s is involved in regulatory efforts to see regulated and taxed internet gaming in the US.”
And as for Harrah’s taking part in regulatory efforts in Europe, Garber adds that the largest land-based gambling company in the world becoming involved in pushing for regulation would have to be seen as an advantage for the industry.
When it comes to looking ahead, Garber believes the egaming world will be dominated by “a few strong, global operators” in which Americans will be free to gamble online legally.
“The future of online gaming is going to be not dissimilar from the current situation with land-based gaming. There will be a few, very strong global operators that dominate, and obviously it is Harrah’s strategy to be one of those leading global operators, and to leverage our brands and the expertise of the people that I’m bringing on board to see that that happens.”
There is always a tendency to want to go over past events, even more so when they have happened at the world’s largest egaming company and featured some of the most well-known characters in the industry. But precisely because those events are in the past, for Garber and HIE it’s all about the future. As he says himself: “The idea is that ultimately HIE will be a global business. Today it is not yet a really global business because online gaming is an activity not yet legal in the US, which is the biggest internet market in the world, but the UK and the rest of the EU and the positions they have taken are creating a positive market for opportunity, and we are exploring those opportunities.”
This interview first appeared in the August edition of eGaming Review.
Posted: 10/08/2009
Author:Jake Pollard
Date:10/08/2009
http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/industry/features/255627/ceo-interview-mitch-garber-harrahs-interactive-entertainment.thtml
