Gary Loveman, a Harvard mathematician with no casino experience, became Harrah's CEO and used data analytics to predict exactly when to offer room upgrades or $50 in free gambling. Within two years, he'd turned the casino into a machine that knew how to keep people gambling.
Harrah's was a casino, but this was before, like, kind of casinos became hotels. Up until like the 1990s or early 2000s, the hotel and casinos were just like really simple businesses. But then Harrah's hired a guy who was a 40-year-old mathematician from Harvard. He had no management experience, no experience running a company. His name is Gary Loveman, and he comes in and he just makes this his math playground and he dials it in. Within 2 years of him being CEO, where when you called and booked a hotel based off of all types of math, they would know to offer you an upgrade or offer you 50 bucks in free gambling because it was all math to them. And they knew that if they get you a free room, they got you hooked on gambling. It was all like a statistical thing. And he basically invented this idea of using data and math like a Moneyball type of way for hotel guests.
