Execs leave Park Place ‘Net unit

Liz Benston and Richard N. Velotta

Tuesday, April 1, 2003 | 11:31 a.m.

Park Place Entertainment Corp.'s Internet commerce division has been redeployed and the head of the division has left the company, a move that comes a few weeks after the company announced that it would hold off on developing an online gambling site for non-U.S. bettors.

Frank Han, Park Place's senior vice president of electronic commerce, and one other employee left the company last week, a spokesman said Monday.

Han, appointed by Park Place's former chief executive, Tom Gallagher, was hired in part to explore Internet gambling opportunities.

But enthusiasm for Web casinos has diminished as the prospect of legalizing them in the United States grows slimmer -- a development that may have repercussions in other countries, experts say.

Last month, Park Place spokesman Robert Stewart said the regulatory environment surrounding online gambling was getting "more, not less complex" and that the company would not be pursuing a pending license application to introduce a Web casino in the Isle of Man, an island off the coast of Britain that has developed Internet gambling regulations and now hosts a site of competitor MGM MIRAGE.

Han also had been the liaison between Park Place and LasVegas.com, an Internet hotel and airline reservation site operated by a company jointly controlled by Park Place and Mandalay Resort Group.

Han could not be reached for comment. He was hired 15 months ago by Park Place after helping develop eToys, a now-defunct e-commerce site founded in 1997.

Stewart said Han's parting from the company was amicable. He said other employees within the division were reassigned to the advertising department or the marketing department of the company.

Stewart said the company decided to place e-commerce specialists within its advertising and marketing departments rather than have one division dedicated to e-commerce.

Aside from online gambling, the e-commerce division has been spearheading other Internet-related initiatives, including a major effort to revamp the company's websites by adding booking engines and direct marketing features to reach more customers.

Stewart said a senior-level executive has been chosen to be the new liaison to LasVegas.com, but he said he could not yet disclose who it is.

In a related matter, Erick Rodriguez, president of LasVegas.com, has left that company after five months. A LasVegas.com spokeswoman confirmed that Rodriguez was no longer with the company, but did not disclose circumstances of his departure. No replacement has been named.

Representatives of Mandalay could not be reached for comment on management changes at LasVegas.com, a site leased from the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

LasVegas.com's main competitor is VEGAS.com, a sister company of the Las Vegas Sun.

Separately, Park Place Senior Vice President Peter George will be assuming gaming development opportunities in the United States that had been led by Kim Sinatra, Park Place's chief legal counsel who resigned in February.

George will continue to head Park Place's international development efforts and the operation of international casinos. He had also been involved in exploring online gambling.

Several other major gaming companies have remained mum on the subject of operating Web casinos, and others, including Station Casinos Inc., have exited the business over regulatory concerns. MGM MIRAGE and a sister company of the Venetian casino resort, which was recently awarded a license to pursue a site on one of the British Channel Islands, remain the most aggressive Las Vegas companies to seek online opportunities.