Hilton's involvement in the gaming industry began in 1947, with its approval to operate what would be the
Caribe Hilton Hotel and Casino in Puerto Rico. Other Caribbean casinos followed, including the
Havana Hilton and El Panama Hilton. Hilton's international hotels were spun off as a separate company in 1964. Hilton returned to gaming in 1970, buying a controlling interest in
Kirk Kerkorian's
International and
Flamingo hotels in
Las Vegas. Its casino holdings grew to ten properties over the years, accounting for more than half of the company's revenues. Hilton unsuccessfully tried to sell itself in 1989 and again in 1995. The failures were partly attributed to gaming regulations that would make a purchase by a foreign company difficult, leading the company to consider a spinoff of its gaming operations. Hilton beat out
ITT Corporation with an offer of $2 billion in stock plus $1 billion of assumed debt, Bally CEO Arthur Goldberg joined Hilton as president of gambling operations. By 1998, Hilton was again trying to split its gaming and hotel operations, believing that its stock price was dragged down by involvement in the highly competitive gaming industry. Efforts were hampered by the need for a merger to provide a business purpose to qualify the spin-off for tax-free status. Negotiations for a spinoff and purchase of
Circus Circus Enterprises broke down over disagreements about price and management, and concerns about Hilton's debt level. An agreement was finally reached for Hilton to spin off its casinos as a new public company, Park Place Entertainment, which would immediately buy
Grand Casinos, owner of three properties in Mississippi, for $650 million in stock plus $550 million in assumed debt. Grand's operations outside of Mississippi, including three Indian casinos it managed, were spun off as a separate company,
Lakes Entertainment, before the merger. Goldberg was installed as CEO of the combined company, which had eighteen casinos. In 2000, Park Place purchased
Caesars World, whose casinos included
Caesars Palace and
Caesars Atlantic City, from
Starwood for $3 billion. The four Caesars
Pocono Resorts were excluded from the sale. In 2001, Park Place was named to the
Gaming Hall of Fame. In July 2003, plans were announced to rename Park Place as Caesars Entertainment, capitalizing on the Caesars brand name. The change took effect on January 6, 2004, and the company's ticker symbol was changed to CZR. On June 18, 2004, Caesars sold the
Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino to
Colony Capital for $280 million. A Caesars spokesperson stated that the sale would help the company focus on its major casinos on the
Las Vegas Strip. On July 14, 2004,
Harrah's Entertainment agreed to purchase Caesars Entertainment for over $5 billion. The latter sold
Caesars Tahoe in June 2005 for $45 million to
Columbia Sussex, owner of the nearby
Horizon Casino. It was one of a series of sales made by Caesars and Harrah's to avoid anti-trust issues with their proposed merger. The acquisition was completed in 2005. In turn, Harrah's was itself acquired and taken private in 2006 by a group of private equity funds including
Apollo Global Management,
The Blackstone Group and
TPG Capital. In 2010, Harrah's took on the Caesars Entertainment name. The company merged with Eldorado Resorts in 2020, forming another new
Caesars Entertainment company. ==Properties owned when acquired by Harrah's==