A flair for business Online gaming has gradually entered the new landscape, a shiſt that also explains why Garber finds himself at the helm of CAC, a major global gaming group that recruited him in 2009 to launch and run an online gaming company, Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE). Before that, from 2006 to 2008, Garber was living in Europe, where he was CEO of PartyGaming, a lucrative British online gaming company. One of his first moves as head of CIE was to purchase the rights to the popular World Series of Poker tournaments, for which CIE would later develop an online application. Then in 2011, CIE acquired Playtika, the Israeli online


gaming developer of Slotomania for mobile devices and social media, one of the most popular slot game apps on Facebook with more than 100 million downloads. “This was by far my most profitable acquisition,” Garber says.


28 | CPA MAGAZINE | MAY 2016


“Mitch has a flair for business. He’s a visionary who can accu-


rately assess projects,” says tax expert Anne-Marie Boucher, Garber’s wife and one of the founding lawyers of business law firm BCF. The upshot: last year, CIE posted revenue of US$766.5 million,


a 30.6% increase from US$586.8 million in 2014. EBITDA was up 59.7% to US$282.7 million from US$177 million. The sub- sidiary suffered less than other businesses from the economic crisis that began in 2008. “Las Vegas was affected because there have been fewer tourists, and those who come stay for a shorter time and spend less. But people will always find $15 to spare on entertainment, like going to the movies or playing online games,” Garber notes. However, to sustain its momentum and stay ahead of the pack, “the company has to continue innovating and developing games accessible on all platforms,” he says. The success of CIE, which also operates Bingo Blitz and


Photo : Joe Giron


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