Greg O'Neill and Charles Chang Edge Out Fellow MBA Candidates in Charity Poker Tournaments Hosted by Harrah's Entertainment

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. 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.

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"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."

Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. is the world's largest provider of branded casino entertainment. Since its beginning in Reno, Nevada, nearly 70 years ago, Harrah's has grown through development of new properties, expansions and acquisitions, and now owns or manages casinos on four continents. The company's properties operate primarily under the Harrah's, Caesars and Horseshoe brand names; Harrah's also owns the London Clubs International family of casinos. Harrah's Entertainment is focused on building loyalty and value with its customers through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence and technology leadership.

For more Harrah's information, please visit: http://www.harrahs.com/.