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Terry Lanni to Resign from Board of Youbet.com

Lanni just joined the board Jan. 31. Youbet.com is a Los Angeles company that sells a subscription service that enables members to watch live horse races on their home computers from tracks around the country.

Members in most states can also bet on the races. Youbet.com doesn't accept the wagers directly, but links its members with its "wagering partner," Ladbroke USA in Pennsylvania.

This is why Lanni's appointment to the board was noteworthy. Major Las Vegas gaming firms and their executives have generally avoided any involvement with online gaming, for fear of running afoul of Nevada regulators.

Lanni is a major figure in the gaming industry. He's been a top executive at both MGM Grand and Caesars World, and served on the National Gambling Impact Study Commission.

When he joined the board of Youbet.com, however, he was planning to get into another line of work. He had resigned effective Dec. 30 as chief executive of MGM Grand, but remained as non-executive chairman.

But in April, after MGM Grand made the deal to acquire Mirage Resorts, Lanni was persuaded by Kirk Kerkorian, MGM Grand's major shareholder, to return to the company full-time.

The Sun quoted MGM Grand spokesman Alan Feldman as saying that Lanni had also resigned from the board of PurchasePro.com, a Las Vegas company that handles business-to-business e-commerce. The Sun did not mention Lanni's membership on the board of MI Entertainment Inc., which is buying North American horse racetracks. He joined that board in January.

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