Harrah's sells ... What now?

With Harrah's Entertainment accepting a $17.1 billion buyout offer from two private equity firms on Tuesday, one gaming analyst said he doubts the Tahoe properties would face the wrecking ball of sorts or even major layoffs among its almost 4,000 employees working for three of six casinos at the South Shore.

But University of Nevada Reno economics professor Bill Eadington did indicate Apollo Management Group and Texas Pacific Group, who will assume $10.7 billion in debt, may slow down the world's largest casino company's pace of its own investment.

"That might not be a bad thing," he said.

The company owns 350 acres of property on the Las Vegas Strip alone.

And assets of the evolving private company may be spun off, operations minimally streamlined and going public again is another possibility.

"This is creative accounting not unlike that of Enron and WorldCom," he said.

The $90-a-share transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, may take up to a year to close.

Once the deal goes through, Eadington - who specializes in the gaming industry - has watched the Stateline market flourish to flatten.

"There will be rebuilding (of the organization). I would not be surprised they'd find a buyer for certain properties but I doubt they'd take three properties, unless underperforming that badly, for closure," he said.

The evaluation places Stateline's single-digit increases in gaming wins on neutral ground.

"Tahoe is also evolving in an attempt to refocus and take advantage of what surrounds the properties," he said.

Tahoe landscape changes

The landscape appears much different than Bill Harrah's early days from Harrah's as a single bingo parlor in the mid '40s - a time gaming historian and former employee Dwayne Kling views reflects on with fondness. Hard-boiled eggs and beers cost a dime each.

"We always said Bill Harrah was a man of vision, but no one could envision this. I think this is a compliment to the type of person Bill Harrah was and the people he left behind," said Kling, who started out as a change person for the gaming industry. "But I don't think Bill Harrah would have sold."

But the temptation to capitalize on a big attraction and go private may have been too much to ignore, according to one South Lake Tahoe financial adviser who watches the market.

"Being a publicly traded company is a hassle. When you go private, you don't have to answer to shareholders," said Cheryl Sillings of Brookstreet Securities Corporation.

Sillings explained the investment groups that bought the casino company had a lot of cash gained from the growth of hedge funds.

"They want to put that cash to work," she said.

Sillings agreed there's a chance Harrah's will go public again to give it liquidity, but in the meantime, unloading some of the debt the investment groups is absorbing from the buying of Caesars Entertainment last June may be recommended.

Harrah's corporate management viewed the buyout in a favorable light.

"In Apollo and TPG, we will have owners who share our vision for Harrah's, are fully