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Worldwide Satellite Tournaments Held for 2006 WSOP

31 October 2005

LAS VEGAS – (PRESS RELEASE) -- Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: HET) said today casinos in Europe, Latin America and Australia are awarding tournament winners seats in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event, whose prize pool is expected to exceed $70 million.

The most recent operator to sign an agreement with Harrah's Licensing Company, LLC, is Holland Casino for their Master Classics of Poker. In Holland Casino Amsterdam the winner of the euro 5,000 ($6,000 US) Texas Hold'Em freezeout on Nov. 9-11 will be awarded cash and a seat in the World Series of Poker Main Event next summer.

"This is an early step in our development and execution of an international growth strategy for the World Series of Poker," said Jeffrey Pollack, vice president of sports and entertainment marketing for Harrah's Entertainment. "We're very pleased that Holland Casino, whose Master Classic of Poker is Europe's most popular annual gaming event, is including a seat in the World Series of Poker as part of its prize package. This alliance will help drive new, incremental exposure for the World Series of Poker."

"The Master Classic of Poker is in its 13th year and has been the biggest poker tournament in Europe during that period," said Ron Goudsmit, vice president of Holland Casino. "Last year we awarded euro 985,000 ($1.2 million US) in prize money just for the Texas Hold'Em event, and the 2006 World Series of Poker seat will be a great additional bonus for this year's winner. Total prize money was euro 1.8 million ($2.2 million US) last year."

Other international casinos licensed to award World Series of Poker seats include the Crown and Star City casinos in Australia; CIRSA Casinos' properties in Venezuela, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Panama; and the Conrad Punta del Este in Uruguay.

The 2005 World Series of Poker at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas awarded more than $103 million in prize money, and 560 players shared nearly $53 million during the Main Event alone. The richest and most prestigious event in gaming, the World Series of Poker has seen a doubling of both number of entrants and total prize money each of the past three years.

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Worldwide Satellite Tournaments Held for 2006 WSOP is republished from Online.CasinoCity.com.