Word: harrah
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...however, hardly gives investors a license to coin money, as the owners of some deficit-ridden Nevada operations have discovered: gambling is a fast-paced, cash-heavy business that, like any other, must be tightly run to turn a profit. How tightly, TIME Correspondent John Quirt learned by studying Harrah's, one of the oldest (it celebrated its 40th birthday Oct. 30) and most successful Nevada gaming concerns. His report...
...Harrah's approach to managing the chaotic business of gambling is to leave nothing to chance. High above its crowded Reno and Lake Tahoe casinos, where $2 billion changes hands each year, security guards crawl along steel catwalks and watch for cheaters through one-way ceiling mirrors. Near by, cashiers match bingo winners against a computerized list of more than 4,000 cards. Players who switch cards, load dice or pinch bets pose a constant threat to profitability. So does the danger of thievery by employees: to discourage theft, cash from the company's 3,900 gaming tables...
...Harrah's is literally run by the book. More than 50 operations manuals, written by executives over the past quarter of a century, spell out everything from window-washing policy to the importance of maintaining a businesslike decorum. The company's pit bosses are referred to as administrators, and cocktail waitresses taking orders at the craps tables are instructed to call out, to the bartender, say, "Two double Scotches for C" instead of shouting the word craps. Every effort is made to dispel the rowdy, green eyeshade image of gambling. New croupiers are taught the "theory of craps...
While such attention to detail enables top management to monitor every aspect of the business, it also creates a blizzard of paper work. Concedes Chairman Bill Harrah: "The danger is that you can become overorganized and start getting answers and information that you don't really need. It's something we fight all the time." For Harrah, a quiet ex-Californian who owns 84% of the company's stock, fussing over minutiae is a hard habit to break after 40 years. Recently he ordered a hotel restaurant billboard repainted after noticing that the rack-of-lamb dinner...
That is no idle boast. The 1,600 seats in Harrah's showrooms are almost always filled every night, and top performers sell out nearly a month in advance: a recent John Denver engagement drew 82,000 telephone-reservation requests in a single week. During the fiscal year that ended June 30, Harrah's hotels averaged a high 92% occupancy rate and net profit rose 25% from 1976 to a record $14.6 million on a 13.5% increase in revenues, which totaled $161.6 million. Unlike many casinos in Las Vegas that cater primarily to heavy-spending Eastern gamblers, Harrah...