Harrah’s hires Illinois gaming board head

Megan Reichgott

Thursday, June 19, 2003 | 9:48 a.m.

CHICAGO -- The head of the Illinois Gaming Board has resigned to accept a job as an executive with Harrah's Entertainment Inc. of Las Vegas, the regulatory board announced Wednesday.

Philip C. Parenti, who took over as administrator in November 2001, said his new job as a vice president at the gambling company does not conflict with the board's code of conduct. The code prohibits members or employees from working for or representing a riverboat licensee or applicant within a year of leaving the board.

"Harrah's has 25 properties throughout the country. I won't be involved with Illinois properties during the confines of the one-year period," Parenti said.

Harrah's owns riverboat casinos in Metropolis and Joliet.

Parenti "will not be involved in Harrah's efforts to expand or acquire additional riverboat licenses in Illinois should they become available," said board Chairman Elzie Higginbottom.

Parenti was key in brokering a deal for Emerald Casino to give up its state license in return for investors' original stakes in a planned Rosemont casino. The board derailed that casino in January 2001 by voting to revoke Emerald's license, claiming that top casino officials lied to the board and that some investors had mob ties.

New board members went along with the deal to avoid a possibly lengthy revocation process. A planned sale of the license has been held up by bankruptcy proceedings involving Emerald.

Parenti said he wanted to leave his $160,000-a-year job partly because he has to pay tuition for two daughters in college.

"I'm going back to the private sector to try to earn a living for my four daughters," Parenti said. "Like their father ... they picked Catholic private universities that cost a lot of money, which was definitely a factor in my decision."

Daughter Elizabeth is at DePaul University in Chicago and Khristen will be a freshman at the University of Dayton, Parenti said.

Parenti's resignation follows a pattern where casino companies hire former regulators, said the Rev. Tom Grey, the Rockford-based executive director of the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion.

"If the public could have any confidence in the board after what happened with the Emerald Casino fiasco, this is the straw that broke the camel's back," Grey said.

The board will select Parenti's replacement, with counsel from Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The governor doesn't have anyone in mind for Parenti's replacement yet, said spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff.