MBA Poker Championship winners named

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: HET) today announced Greg O'Neill and Charles Chang as the winners of the MBA Poker Championship Tournaments. As the winner of the Saturday tournament, Mr. O'Neill (from the University of Chicago) took home $14,359 in prize money. As the winner of the Sunday tournament, Mr. Chang (from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas) received $16,089 as well as a Dell Latitude notebook computer, Jim Beam golf bag and dart board, and a Microsoft Xbox 360 prize package. This year's prize pool totaled close to $100,000. Over 1000 MBA students and alumni from some of the country's best universities -- including Harvard, Northwestern, UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Chicago, and Wharton -- gathered at Caesars Palace this weekend. Over the past three years, $30,000 from the prize pool has been donated to the Alzheimer's Association.

"We've leveraged the worldwide recognition of our World Series of Poker brand to attract MBA poker players and spectators alike to Caesars Palace Las Vegas for what is undeniably one of the most creative recruiting events in the U.S.," said Mary Thomas, senior vice president of human resources at Harrah's Entertainment. "MBA poker players tend to think quickly on their feet and be quite quantitatively apt -- two attributes highly coveted by recruiters."

"This weekend is a truly unique recruiting environment for MBAs," said Saturday winner, Greg O'Neill. "The numerous events provide us the opportunity to relax, enjoy some competitive poker, and network with both recruiters and MBA's from other top schools."

"Beam Global Spirits & Wine, CareerBuilder.com, Dell, Microsoft, Nationwide and other sponsors were eager to get in front of this highly-qualified audience in an innovative way," said Susan Hailey, vice president of talent acquisition. "A survey of Fortune 500 CEOs indicated that building their organization's bench strength is their top objective over the next 3-5 years."