INTERVIEW MITCH GARBER
itch Garber is among a handful of gaming executives for whom exiting a conference hall is an achievement. The Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE) chief executive has just taken part in a panel discussion at a gaming event in Las Vegas and is surrounded by acquaintances new and old the moment he leaves the stage, and can barely move a yard without someone else offering a business card or a handshake. But after spending any time in his company, you get the feeling it takes a lot to slow Garber down. As the head of a global gaming business his schedule is more packed than ever. These increasingly frequent public speaking appearances after many months away from the spotlight are just one reason he ?nds himself jetting the length of North America and beyond. Yet he brushes away the idea of jetlag like a bothersome ?y, preferring to ensure he ?nds a gym wherever he happens to be, to always eat healthily, and to get as much as humanly possible done while he’s in any given place. As we leave the conference and make the short journey down Las Vegas Boulevard to Caesars Entertainment headquarters at Caesars Palace,
“I KNOW THAT (CAESARS CEO) GARY LOVEMAN AND HIS TEAM PLACED A LOT OF FAITH INTO WHAT INTERACTIVE GAMING CAN MEAN TO THE OVERALL CORPORATION, AND I DON’T WANT TO LET THEM DOWN”
Garber on his fear of failure
it becomes obvious how he gets so much done. He moves at a frenetic pace: relentlessly responding to emails on his phone, rattling off a complicated coffee order, ?ying past his colleagues in the company’s executive offices with witty one-liners as he goes. Before I’ve had time to catch my breath, we’ve settled in the boardroom for the interview. I want to know what keeps the Canadian going at this velocity after 22 years in the gaming industry, travelling as he now does between his family home and office in Montreal and CIE’s business interests in Vegas and Israel, among others. “The fear of failure,” he says after a thoughtful pause. “That’s the driver behind every successful person. And in a way it’s also the desire to prove to the people who have put their faith in me that they were right. I know that [Caesars CEO] Gary Loveman and his team placed a lot of faith into what interactive gaming can mean to the overall corporation, and I don’t want to let them down. I want to prove they were right to hire me and to move in that direction.”
FORCED TO DIVERSIFY
Garber joined Caesars’ then newly-created interactive arm back in late 2008. At the time, he and many others were convinced that a successful federal online poker bill was imminent, and having just spent more than two years in charge at industry powerhouse PartyGaming, Garber was recruited as the man to convert Caesars’ offline gambling dominance into the interactive world. US egaming regulation, however, has been at best unpredictable and at worst responsible for completely derailing operators’ short-to midterm strategies. In spite of this, Garber has refused to allow the lack of progressive legislation to dampen his aspirations, leading the operator to a number of acquisitions since his appointment, including the high pro?le deal to buy social gaming ?rm Playtika (CIE initially purchased a 51% stake in the Slotomania developer before making it a fullyowned subsidiary by securing the remaining 49% in Q4 2011).
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