Vegas Tempts Ivy League Grads with Poker Party

Posted: January 15, 2010

Updated: October 4, 2017

The MBA Poker Championship, operated in Las Vegas by Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., is in its third year. This annual event calls recent

The MBA Poker Championship, operated in Las Vegas by Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., is in its third year. This annual event calls recent graduates from the top business schools across the US to fly to Las Vegas for a long weekend of parties and poker. It kicks off on Friday January 15th and runs through the weekend.

Not just anyone can sign up. Potential players must have just received their Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, and must submit resumes for consideration. The goal of the event, after all, is not to have fun, but to be recruited.

Recruitment happens on two levels. First, Harrah’s wants fresh young business grads to join their team. Second, event sponsors are also allowed to try to try and recruit the participants. Most sponsors in the past have come from major trading companies and business firms, though some remain anonymous to keep from having a public connection with online gambling.

In 2006, the first year that Harrah’s ran this event, 1,200 new business graduates attended. This year they are expecting several hundred more. The casino company usually hires around 20 new employees from each year’s event, and makes about $250,000 in the process off of tournament entry fees.

Harrah’s has been working hard lately to expand its online presence, in hopes that internet gambling in the United States will soon be legalized. Last September they signed a deal with 888, the UK’s second largest online gambling firm.

The deal, purportedly worth several million, will see 888 supplying Harrah’s with internet casino and poker services to Harrah’s for use with their own branded online gambling website.

This deal puts Harrah’s in line to offer one of the first online casinos in the US – a good position to be in if/when online gambling there becomes legalized and regulated.

Tags: