Gaming briefs for Dec. 1, 2003

Monday, Dec. 1, 2003 | 11:06 a.m.

Lodging giant hires CFO from Safeway

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., owner of the Sheraton and Westin chains and a player in the Las Vegas tourism industry, today said it hired Vasant Prabhu away from Safeway Inc. to fill the job of chief financial officer being vacated in a management reorganization.

Prabhu also was named executive vice president and succeeds Ron Brown, who will become executive vice president of strategy, White Plains-based Starwood said in a statement. Prabhu will remain CFO at No. 3 U.S. supermarket chain Safeway until Jan. 1, Starwood spokeswoman Nadeen Ayala said.

Chief Executive and founder Barry Sternlicht, while announcing a 7.7 percent drop in third-quarter net income in October, said he would resign to become executive chairman and focus on real-estate investment and expansion of Starwood's W hotels. He plans to step down after his replacement, whom he said would be an outsider, is hired.

Casinos find temporary workers in Brazil

NORWICH, Conn. -- Connecticut's two casinos have extended their reach to Brazil in a search of temporary help.

Several hundred students, abandoning the summer of the Southern Hemisphere for a New England winter and a paycheck, are expected to begin work next month at the casinos at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.

The students are from Florianopolis, a tourist destination about an hour and a half north of Rio de Janeiro. They are expected to stay through March.

Kevin Bogle, vice president of human resources for Mohegan Sun, said recruiters from the casinos attended job fairs in Brazil, and will hire the young people primarily in the hotel and food and beverage departments.

Others will work as housekeepers and front desk receptionists.

Casino officials believe hiring students will reduce labor costs and the rate of employee turnover for at least three months.

The students, between 18 and 26 years old and fluent in English, were hired through a Sacramento company that will pay the benefits for the workers.

The firm, Direct Educational Exchange, recruited more than 400 Polish students for the casinos last summer. They were paid as much as six times what they would have earned back home.