Casino North Florida

IS IT IN THE CARDS?

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Now Head Up Firm Gobbling Up North Florida Beach Condos!

Among the top Florida Indian casinos are the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa and the sister Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood. In addition to offering extensive gaming options, these casino resorts offer upscale accommodations, numerous dining venues, and some great nightlife. Casinos are skimpy on Florida's western coast, but there are a few options. Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa doesn't have many options in casinos, but it does have one of the most renowned.

THE CORPORATE SHUFFLE OF HARRAH'S TOP EXECUTIVES DOING THESHIFT TO GAYLORD ENTERTAINMENT, Inc.

SPIN-OFF, RESORT QUEST INTERNATIONAL, A NEWFLORIDA CORPORATION HAS QUIETLY MERGED WITH ABBOTT REALTY of DESTIN,FLORIDA, NOW CONTROLS THOUSANDS OF NEW PANAMA CITY BEACH AND PANHANDLECONDOS..

By: John Caylor - Insider Editor

Take a look at $20 Million spent tostudy a proposed new Panama City airport, which has had no interest shown bydistribution, shipping and receiving centers or any industrial-manufacturingconcerns. An airport of this proposed magnitude would necessitateheavy industrial support and could not survive as a passengerterminal. Then look at the newly paved Florida Panhandle4-lane highways, new high rise bay bridges, millions spent on new beach waterlines. Billions in taxpayer dollars providing new infrastructure andgetting ready for what?

Is it the anticipated sale of thousands ofnew wall to wall high-rise, million-dollar condos, obstructing views ofbeautiful beaches and creating valleys of darkness. Hell No, it has to bestronger than death a force so compulsive the Devil himself couldn't stop it!

That force is about to take footholdin Florida with the passage of Amendment 4 on next Tuesday's Primaryballot. Since 1978 Florida voters have rejected state-wide casino gamblingthree times. But, according to the latest polls the measure to allow slotmachines at existing dog and horse tracks and jai alai frontons in Miami-Dadeand Broward counties will be overwhelmingly approved by South Florida voters. IfNorth Florida voters don't stop Amendment 4, Florida will probably race down theroad to join Mississippi, Nevada, Louisiana and others states that havefallen prey to money lauders and organized crime associates.

If the voters of South Florida agreein subsequent elections, slots could spread like wildfire and the big hitch isthat the legislation does not require that gambling revenue be taxed! But, ifand when the legislature does tax it the money would be earmarked foreducation.. Hell of a deal for gambling firms!

Now close your eyes and look at the newFlorida Panhandle rising all around you and grab your wallet before Jeb Bush,Alan Bense, Charlie Hilton, The St. Joe Company and the NationalRepublican Party take your shirt! A PanhandleVictory is a live or die situation for Amendment 4 and the Crooks that havequietly planned to steal your future, devalue your homes and flood the streetswith crime. Let's hope some of the states DemocraticParty heavy-weights step in for a slugging match!

After an extensive investigation theInsider has learned these shattering facts.. Abbott Realty of Destin, Floridawhich manages several thousand area condominium units including Panama CityBeach's Edgewater Beach, Gulf Crest and others has been merged into ResortQuest International, Inc. A company whose top CEO's andexecutives Colin V. Reed and Mike Rose are legendary for their management ofnational casino gambling operations.

Insider Magazine interviewed Resort QuestCommunications director Greg Rossiter, October 26th, regardingReed's past connections to Harrah's and other national casino operations. Wequizzed Rossiter at length and he confirmed indeed that Reed is the same ColinV. Reed of Harrah's.

Rossiter was vague regarding our questionsconcerning casino gambling plans by Resort Quest and Gaylord Entertainment andflatly denied that the company had any interests in casino gambling. But,Rossiter also didn't know that Resort Quest was registered with the NevadaSecretary of State to do business in Nevada.

When asked to rule out any attempt atcasino gambling ventures in the Florida Panhandle, Rossiter replied that'he couldn't predict his companies future'.

The Insider has assembled the followingdocuments and news clippings to enlighten our readers on this issue..

Colin Reed, a key member of Harrah'sEntertainment's three-headed office of the president, has resigned as thecompany's chief financial officer to assume the top spot at GaylordEntertainment, a Nashville, Tenn.-based company that owns the Grand Ole Opry, aswell as radio and TV interests.

Tuesday, April 24, 2001
Las Vegas Gaming Wire

The move announced Monday afternoonhad been in the works for about two months and returns Reed to Tennessee, whichhe left last year when Harrah's moved its corporate offices to Las Vegas fromMemphis.

Reed, who could not be reached forcomment late Monday afternoon, will be reunited with Gaylord's new chairman,Michael Rose, with whom he worked at Holiday Inns Inc. in the late 1980s. At thetime, Reed served as special assistant to Rose, who was the company's chairman.

Harrah's was later spun off into aseparate company and Reed became a board member, as well as its top money man.

During the past year, Reed joined with Harrah's Chairmanand Chief Executive Officer Phil Satre and Gary Loveman, the company's chiefoperating officer, to navigate through the challenges posed by the bankruptciesof Harrah's New Orleans and National Airlines, and the financial travails of theRio.

'Colin's departure is bittersweet for the company andfor me personally,' Satre said in a statement. 'At the same time, Irecognize that the leadership role at Gaylord is a very exciting opportunity andone that suits Colin well.'

The 'trio,' as they areknown by company observers, recently helped craft a compromise in the LouisianaLegislature that cut by half the yearly tax bill for the struggling New Orleanscasinos.

Meanwhile, National Airlines, which Harrah's Entertainmenthelped found during Reed's tenure, continues to seek investors to help it out ofChapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The gaming company with 21 casinos in the United States,has a slightly less than 50 percent interest in both the New Orleans casino andthe airlines.

Just last week, Harrah's announced that its struggling Riohad reversed a trend that saw cash flow plummet last year, as gamblers won ahigher-than-expected amount of money from the casino's table games.

'It's hard to decouple his contributions from theother members of management,' Brian Egger, a Credit Suisse First Bostoncasino industry analyst, said of Reed's role in the company's rulingtriumvirate. 'That three-person (team) had some challenges last year andhas had a good measure of success this year.'

Chuck Atwood, Harrah's vice president and treasurer, waspromoted to the positions of senior vice president and chief financial officerin response to Reed's departure.

Loveman was appointed to the new position of companypresident and will continue to serve as COO

Thursday, July 19, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Observers say sell-off sends poor message to investors Wolf quest demo download.

Top Harrah's Entertainment executives and board memberssold a portion of their holdings in the company during the weeks leading to aJuly 5 announcement that Harrah's second-quarter earnings would not be as strongas Wall Street analysts expected.

While not illegal, observers say the stock sales sent apoor message to investors, especially when juxtaposed against thelower-than-expected earnings.

'Certainly there is a perception there's somethingfundamentally wrong with the company if the insiders relinquish theirstock,' said Jenice Malecki, a New York City-based securities lawyer.

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'You could say that individuals had some privatematter requiring funding, but when you see groups of insiders relinquishingtheir stock you have to say, 'What's going on?' '

Ten of the company's top executives and board members sold734,577 shares between April 27 and June 8, according to filings tabulated byLancer Analytics, a watchdog of insider trading. Harrah's had 117.2 millionshares outstanding as of March 31.

The company's departing chief financialofficer, Colin Reed, exercised options for 471,188 shares of Harrah's stock andsold them for $16.18 million in late April. He left the company to becomepresident and chief executive officer of Nashville, Tenn.-based GaylordEntertainment.

The sale was not unusual for a departing corporateexecutive, stock market observers said. But the sale of 263,389 Harrah's sharesby nine remaining executives and board members was out of the ordinary,especially for Harrah's, which had just two insider trades last year of 31,811shares, according to Lancer Analytics records.

The stock's 52-week high of $38.29 was recorded on June 13;its low of $21.63 was recorded a year ago today.

'I would say the insiders at this company are prettyactive sellers, at least recently,' said Lon Gerber, Lancer's researchdirector.

Key reasons for insider selling include profit taking,portfolio diversification and a need for cash.

Harrah's Entertainment spokesman Gary Thompson said hiscompany has strict guidelines mandating when corporate insiders can sell theirshares.

None of the sales violated the policy, Thompson said,although he declined to explain the policy's details.

'It's part of their compensation,' Thompson notedof the sales. 'In Colin's case, he was leaving, and he had to exercise hisoptions.'

None of the remaining executives and board members who soldshares last quarter agreed to discuss the sales. Instead, the company's lawyersissued a Wednesday statement.

'We are completely satisfied that all trades are incompliance with applicable laws and the company policy,' the statementread.

In their July 5 announcement, Harrah's executives warnedthat the company's second-quarter earnings would be 46 to 50 cents a share andnot the 55 cents projected by 17 Wall Street analysts because of troubles withthe national economy and the Rio.

Harrah's shares rose 17 cents Wednesday to close at $29.96on the New York Stock Exchange after the company reported second-quarterearnings of 49 cents a share, up from 40 cents a year ago.

During the 5 1/2-week period between April 27 and June 8:

• Harrah's Chairman Phil Satre sold 101,144 shares for$3.57 million;

• President and Chief Operating Officer Gary Loveman sold52,500 shares for $1.87 million;

• Senior Vice President of Communications and GovernmentAffairs Jan Jones sold 17,310 shares for $645,317.

The final insider trade came on June 8 and saw MarilynWinn, Harrah's senior vice president of Human Resources, make $1.49 million fromthe exercise of stock options and the sale of 40,127 shares of the company'sstock.

Paul Elliott, an analyst for Thomson Financial/First Call,which owns Lancer Analytics, said it's unlikely that Harrah's executives wereselling knowing that the second-quarter numbers would not meet analysts'estimates. Yet, the number of trades and their proximity to the July 5announcement did raise his interest.

'This was definitely activity we would have looked atlong and hard,' Elliott said. 'It's unfortunate timing from a publicrelations perspective, but fortunate timing from (a personal) perspective.'

Colin Reed Elected to Resort Quest International Board of Directors

Securities and Exchange Commission Press Statement filed 8/11/2000

Press Release
August 11, 2000
Don caesars tampa. MEMPHIS, TN -- ResortQuest International, Inc. (NYSE:RZT), the first brand nameand ``real-time' online booking service (resortquest.com) in vacationcondominium and home rentals, sales and property management services, yesterdayannounced that Colin V. Reed, chief financial officer and a member of thethree-executive Office of the President of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:HET),has been elected to ResortQuest's board of directors.
``Colin Reed's experience at Harrah's, with its focus on strong customerrelations and customer loyalty initiatives like the award-winning Harrah's TotalReward program, will give us additional expert counsel in this important area ofour business,' said David L. Levine, ResortQuest chairman, president and CEO.``We also will benefit from his substantial background in finance anddevelopment, as we continue to execute our strategies of internal growth,selective acquisitions and e-commerce.'
A native of Great Britain, Reed joined a predecessor company to Harrah's in 1977as financial controller for its former Holiday Inn International Division, withaccounting responsibility for hotel operations in the United Kingdom. In 1987,he moved to the company's corporate headquarters as executive assistant to thechairman. He held a series of increasingly important senior-level managementpositions, culminating in his promotion to executive vice president in 1995 andhis appointment as chief financial officer in 1997.
``ResortQuest has founded and is successfully exploiting the last frontier inthe lodging industry--vacation home rentals,' said Reed. ``ResortQuest is in aunique position, given its size and competitive advantage, Internet inventorydistribution and branding initiatives. The company has taken a commandingleadership position and has significant upside, considering its new hands-onmanagement team.'
Prior to joining Harrah's, Reed held various financial and accounting positionswith several British firms, including Crest Hotels.
Reed is a fellow in the British Association of Hotel Accountants and is a memberof the boards of directors of National Airlines, JCC Holdings and Harrah'sEntertainment, Inc.
ResortQuest International provides a one-stop resource for vacation home andcondominium rentals in 42 premier resort destinations in North America.ResortQuest's total portfolio now comprises more than 18,000 vacation rentalproperties. ResortQuest is the first branded vacation rental, propertymanagement and real estate sales company to offer ``real-time' online bookingthrough resortquest.com.
ResortQuest's locations include Gulf Shores, Ala.; Scottsdale and Tucson, Ariz.;Palm Desert and Palm Springs, Calif.; Aspen, Breckenridge, Crested Butte,Dillon, Snowmass Village and Telluride, Colo.; Bethany Beach, Del.; Beaches ofSouth Walton, Bonita Springs, Captiva Island, Destin, Ft. Myers, Ft. MyersBeach, Marco Island, Naples, Navarre Beach, Okaloosa Island/Ft. Walton Beach,Orlando, Pensacola, Sanibel Island and Vanderbilt Beach, Fla.; St. SimonsIsland, Ga.; Hawaii, Magi, Oahu, and Kauai, Hawaii; Sun Valley, Idaho;Nantucket, Mass.; Big Sky, Mont.; the Outer Banks of North Carolina; Lake ErieIslands, Ohio; Sunriver, Ore.; Hilton Head Island, S.C.; Deer Valley, Park Cityand The Canyons, Utah; and Whistler, British Columbia.

Wall Street Twist, November 2000 Interview with Reed - future concentrations on Slots andConsolidation..

TWST: Could you give us a brief overview and profile of Harrah'sEntertainment, Inc. (NYSE:HET)?

Mr. Reed: Harrah's Entertainment was founded by a gentleman named BillHarrah 60 years ago. It's a business predominantly based in northern Nevada.That's where the roots of the company are. Back in 1979, Bill Harrah died andHoliday Corporation acquired Harrah's. Harrah's has grown through a numberof acquisitions and through the development of casinos back in the early 1990s.We now have 21 casinos. We are the most broadly distributed casino company inthe United States of America. Holiday was sold back in two pieces in 1989 and1991, to a British company. A new company was formed called Promus Corporation.Harrah's effectively was spun off from Promus back in 1995. So it's a verycomplex history.

Directory Of Casinos In Florida

TWST: What are the significant trends or developments that you couldexpect in your sector of the market in the near future?

Mr. Reed: I think how we see them may be different from how ourcompetitors see them. As we see them, the first thing will be that technologywill play an ever more important role in the way you retain customers, acquirecustomers, lower the cost of doing business through vehicles like the Internetand the ability to consolidate customers' play. Customers in our industry tendto be exceedingly promiscuous. They move from one location to another location— simply because the value propositions casinos have put in place haven'tbeen strong enough to retain those customers. What we try to do by the use oftechnology and putting reward systems and reward programs in place is toconsolidate their play, and technology will continue to play an ever moreimportant role in the retention of those customers. Additionally, productinnovation, particularly around the slot side and the merchandizing of slots,will play an important role. The other trend that we see is obviously thecontinuation of consolidation in the industry, the elimination of a lot of theredundancy within the industry as businesses consolidate, and we think that willbe good from a profit perspective for the surviving businesses.

TWST: What is the greatest opportunity that lies in wait for you, and doyou think there's a chain of events that could lead you to exceed your ownexpectations?

Mr. Reed: I think that there are things that we're doing that willreally help this corporation move forward. First and foremost is the point thatI made earlier — the consolidation of play of our customers. As we look atcustomer base, we get on average about $0.36 out of every dollar that ourcustomers spend in casinos on an annualized basis. All the technology platformthat we're putting in place, the superior service levels that we put in place,and the industry leading marketing programs are fueling same-store sales growthright now. Bringing customers in their indigenous markets into the Harrah'ssystem, putting them into our unique tiered card system, rewarding them whenthey spend more of their annual budget with us, is having a profound effect onthe same-store sales growth, and of course, same-store profitability. Just togive you the dynamics of this, we have today 19 million customers in ourdatabase, and if we increase that share of our customers' annual spend by fivepoints, moving it from 36% to 41%, that increases EBIDTA for our company by $100million. This is EBIDTA that, because of the systems that we've put in placetoday, doesn't require huge capital spending.

April 15, 2000 - Colin Reed Interview published in LasVegas Review-Journal

Harrah's Entertainment also plans to add 450 rooms to its Atlantic Cityhotel-casino, which Chief Financial Officer Colin Reed saidlacks enough space for guests at its 1,174-room hotel.
Last month, the companycompleted its $425 million acquisition of Player's International, givingHarrah's additional casinos in Louisiana and Illinois, as well as a suburban St.Louis riverboat.
'What we're trying to say through this callthis morning,' Reed noted, 'is there are tremendous fits through thecompany's perspective. We have the capital resources to do the things that weaspire to do.'
Harrah's had considered making a buyout offer forMirage Resorts in late February and early March, sources said, but the companybacked away when MGM Grand raised its offer for the company from $5.4 billion to$6.7 billion.
For the quarter, the Rio reported a holdpercentage of 12.4 percent compared with the 20.5 percentage averaged during thepast three years.
Company executives said the Rio's weak tableresults were not the product of financial wrongdoing or a major loss to any onegambler, but were simply the result of poor luck throughout the quarter, makingit the second quarter in a row that the Rio generated weak table games results.
The trendy Flamingo Road hotel-casino, which wasacquired last year by Harrah's, also reported a lower-than-average holdpercentage for the fourth-quarter of 1999.
'Low hold is a part of doing business inthis industry,' Reed said.
Despite the dip in fortunes, Reed said thecompany will continue to pursue high-end gamblers who wager tens of thousands ofdollars per hand at the city's gaming tables. But MGM Grand's recent deal topurchase Mirage Resorts could prompt the Rio to alter its strategy for marketingto high-end players.
The $6.7 billion buyout, which awaits regulatoryapproval, would give MGM Grand as much as estimated 50 percent of the city'shigh-end casino market, a market in which casino operators give big-timegamblers as much as $100,000 for simply walking through their doors, whilerefunding as much as 15 percent of a gambler's losses to entice return play.

Published February 14, 2000 - Las Vegas-Review

Tracking and keeping customers is key to acasino's success, and Harrah's Entertainment claims to possess 18 million namesin its database.
That compares with the 21 million customers ofAmerica Online. The only difference, said Harrah's Chief Financial Officer ColinReed, is that 'we'd like their multiples.'
One such multiple measures the relationship of acompany's stock price to its cash flow.
Gaming companies generally trade at lowermultiples than companies in other sectors because investors are wary of the upsand downs of casino companies. Internet companies generally trade at highermultiples, with exuberant investors driving the numbers.
Meanwhile, look for Strip casinos to continue toreduce or eliminate cash backs for slot club members. The reason? It seemsgamblers are not putting that cash back into the machines, particularly biggamblers who are walking out the door with the money.
What's even more interesting is the reaction fromcustomers -- there's hardly a complaint. Seems cash backs rate well behind freefood and time spent on a machine.

Who they really are.. SEC filings

Mike Rose brought a tremendous track record in the hospitality industry and a national reputation as a corporate director to Gaylord Entertainment when he joined the company in April 2001.
Rose began his career as an attorney working with one of the largest franchises of Holiday Inns. He later joined Holiday Inns Inc. in Memphis, where he bought, sold, built and franchised hotels on a global basis. He became president in 1979, CEO in 1981 and chairman in 1984. Holiday Inns Inc. was renamed Holiday Corporation in 1985 to reflect the growth of the company's brands, including Harrah's, Embassy Suites, Crowne Plaza, Homewood Suites and Hampton Inn.
Upon the sale of the Holiday Inn brand in 1990, Promus Companies Inc. was formed with Rose as the chairman and CEO. In 1995, Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and Promus Hotel Corporation were split into two publicly traded companies, with Rose as chairman of both. He retired from Harrah's in 1996 and retired as chairman of Promus in 1997.
Among his current board memberships are Darden Restaurants, FelCor Lodging Trust, First Tennessee National Corp. and Stein Mart. Director's Alert, a publication that covers corporate boardroom news, named Rose one of 'Corporate America's 10 outstanding directors for 2000', primarily because of his 15 years of service on General Mills' Board.
Rose earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Cincinnati and a law degree from Harvard Law School. He is active in community affairs, including serving on the Board of Visitors at the University of Memphis, the Athletic Board at Stanford University, the Board of Trustees for the Memphis University School and the Board of Trustees for St. Mary's Episcopal School.