Years back, when Christie Heffner used to visit the Playboy properties with her Pa, Hugh Heffner, she showed an enquiring mind about the world that Hef had created as a symbol of the 20th Century macho man. During the latter part of the 70's and the 80's no one would anticipate that Hef's seemly quiet young daughter would turn into the savvy heir running that great dream maker the Playboy organization, with cash cow casinos in London, a flourishing Rabbit Head franchise division, the iconic magazine that having started it all was in need of urgent reengineering, and the Playboy Clubs around the world that were beginning to show their age.

When Hef handed the corporate reigns of the Playboy empire to Christie, the casinos had closed in London, Atlantic city and Nassau; the mag was an outdated luxury liability; the clubs had lost their karma through the upsurge of others with more sex than sex appeal; and only the franchise part of the business seemed to be going well. The reengineering process of Playboy took a few years, and when the company emerged from this period of corporate transition, it was well into soft porn cable TV, where the appeal of the girl next door had taken a harder sex turn. The new Playboy era was into the sale of sexy signals, DVD's and, later, online betting.

Now Playboy Enterprises and its Bunny Girls are about to return to gaming with a licensing contract for the new Palms tower in Las Vegas, where next year, they will feature in a night club, store, two floor suites and, of course, a casino. According to a report by The Standard from Hong Kong, Christie Heffner is also negotiating to open a Playboy casino in Macau. Playboy's CEO said that they were looking into new markets that have "the most inherent interest to us," adding that, "These are very large deals. We're doing a half-dozen big facilities in places like London and Macau." According to some analysts, both markets have the potential to return great benefits to Playboy without significant capital investment.

Towards the end of August, Playboy created a new executive position to take charge of these new ventures into the latest form of entertainment centres for the company. The fact is that the last time Playboy got involved in a gaming venture in the island of Rhodes in Greece, the casino did not succeed. After the loss of the casinos in the UK through terrible administration, particularly in their London Park Lane flagship, should Christie ever consider steering Playboy back to casino operations she needs to scrutinize not only the source of the errors of the past but also the underhanded play that almost left Playboy for broke in the difficult casino business. (E-10.17.05)

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