News and notes from Harrah’s year-end filing

Harrah’s Entertainment’s year-end filing on Monday revealed a couple of newsworthy items buried in its 140-plus pages.

Harrah’s Entertainment said it spent $60.5 million last year in remediation projects at the Rio and Harrah’s Las Vegas to correct undocumented or substandard remodeling work in some guest rooms.

The faulty work — exposed by the Review-Journal in fall 2007 — is still under county review. The hotel-casino giant last year signed a stipulation with the Clark County district attorney’s office, to postpone prosecution of pending misdemeanor charges for doing the remodeling work in violation of codes.

Arraignments of the company itself and two individual defendants who are Harrah’s employees are on hold until Leo A Daly — an engineering and architecture firm — completes a code-compliance review of 60 randomly selected Harrah’s remodel projects at not only the Rio and Harrah’s Las Vegas, but at six other local properties, too.

Harrah’s also owns Paris Las Vegas, Bally’s, Bill’s, Flamingo, Imperial Palace and Caesars Palace on the Strip.

The Daly review is not yet complete, county spokeswoman Stacey Welling said recently.

The company pointed to the unavailability of the Rio and Harrah’s rooms as part of the reason the company’s Las Vegas revenues declined 10.3 percent.

Lower visitor numbers, declining customer spending and a room remodel at Caesars Palace were also blamed.

Additionally, Harrah’s is selling its 50 percent stake in Fifty, a small, private London casino, to its partner in the property.

Harrah’s acquired its interest in Fifty when it bought London Clubs International for $590 million in December 2006.

A price for the sale, which is expected to close this month, was not disclosed.

Contact reporter Arnold M. Knightly at aknightly@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893.
Review-Journal reporter Joan Whitely contributed to this report.