Faces of Gaming: Phil Satre – Chairman of the Boards

Saturday, July 19, 2025 12:35 PM
  • Commercial Casinos
  • Tom Osiecki — CDC Gaming and Raving Partner

As Chairman of the Board for three iconic gaming companies, Phil Satre occupies a singular perch at the summit with gaming’s true innovators. He is recognized as one of the most influential leaders in modern casino history.

Combine this with his chairmanships of two additional non-gaming companies, and Phil Satre has left an indelible mark on gaming and non-gaming chairmanships that will likely never be repeated.

Satre has a long history with Harrah’s, starting as Vice President and General Counsel in January 1980 and ending as President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of that legendary company until 2004.

In retirement, most people perfect their fly casting or learn a new language, but not Satre. After retiring from Harrah’s, he joined the boards of Nordstrom in 2006 through February 2019 and NV Energy (formerly Sierra Pacific Resources) in January 2005 through 2013 and became Chairman of the Board for both of those organizations.

He was also Non-Executive Chairman of Board for another extraordinary gaming company, IGT, from 2009 through 2018.

Phil Satre is currently serving as the Non‑Executive Chairman of the Board for the renowned Wynn Resorts Ltd., a role he’s held since late 2018. He stepped in following Steve Wynn’s departure to help stabilize the companies’ post-regulatory and reputational challenges.

But according to Satre, his biggest success, the thing that keeps him coming back, is being part of cultures he has encouraged and supported that focus on employees and guest relations.

Small Town and Stanford
Satre was born in 1949 in Palo Alto, California and grew up in a small town, Martinez, California. He attended Stanford University and received a degree in psychology.

As a linebacker who played varsity football at Stanford University for three seasons, Satre played on a team with Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett. “I played three years, and we had a very good team. We beat Ohio State in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1971, and then we beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl on January 1, 1972,” Satre said.

He credits his football years as contributing to a lasting lesson in leadership exhibited by both coaches and players. “It was an experience that created a very strong bond. There was a tremendous amount of pride that is associated with that, and that’s how I feel about my own career,” Satre recalled.

Hall of Fame
Along with his many chairmanships, Satre was inducted into the American Gaming Association Hall of Fame in 2003.

He has been Chair of the Board for the Guinn Center in Nevada, a trustee and Chair of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans and a trustee of the National Automobile Museum in Reno. He also holds the title of Satre Chair in Gaming Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, which was established through a donation in his honor.

It all began with Bill Harrah
“The thing that really shaped my career was when I came to Reno to practice law.

“I had a good friend (named John Sande) who was from Reno on the Stanford football team and encouraged me to come up one summer when we were still playing football to get in really good shape, because Reno is at a higher elevation. So, I spent a summer in Reno in 1969.

“I liked living in Reno that summer and when I finished law school, John, who had been the All-American center on our team, helped me find a job with a law firm in Reno, and it’s primary business client was Bill Harrah and Harrah’s Club.

“Along with his two casinos in Reno and Lake Tahoe, Bill Harrah had a lot of different interests besides operating casinos. He had a large automobile collection and a beautiful lodge on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. He had seven marriages to six different women (he married one twice).

“In addition to legal work for his casinos, I did legal work for his automobile collection and worked on several of his marital transitions,” Satre recounted.

A pivotal timeframe
“I did that beginning in 1975 and then Bill Harrah died in 1978. He went to the Mayo clinic for heart surgery and did not survive it. So, that really changed everything for me. That was a pivotal time in my life, because when Bill Harrah died, the lawyer who was his lead lawyer, Mead Dixon, was executor of his estate and became the Chairman of Harrah’s.

“Mead was a treasured mentor and supporter of my career. I was incredibly fortunate to receive his support and direction. He said to me, ’I want you to now do more and more work for Harrah’s.’ I was sent to Atlantic City about one month after Bill Harrah died to investigate the regulatory environment, and to determine and make a recommendation to the board on whether or not Harrah’s ought to consider expanding to Atlantic City.

“That was critical, because when Bill Harrah was alive, he would not consider opening a casino if there was union representation in the workforce. The best example of that is he wouldn’t go into Las Vegas. He only built casinos in Reno and Lake Tahoe. Both casinos were completely nonunion. But when he passed away, we realized we needed to change that posture if we were to expand into new markets,” Satre said.

Holiday Inns
Bill Harrah’s estate owned 72% of the outstanding shares of Harrah’s and “Bill Harrah’s passing created an impetus for his estate in 1978 and 1979 to look for a way to pay his substantial estate tax bill,” Satre said.

“At the same time, Holiday Inns, Inc. was trying to expand into the casino industry to diversify its assets. On one trip to Atlantic City in 1978, Mead Dixon and I met with Mike Rose, the President and CEO of Holiday Inns. After much due diligence and negotiations, throughout 1978 and 1979, Holiday Inns proposed an acquisition of Harrah’s. The transaction closed in January 1980.

“What was important about that was it gave me the opportunity to really get deeply involved in the industry and understanding the regulatory process and operation. Holiday Inns also purchased the Holiday Casino in Las Vegas in 1979, which later became Harrah’s Las Vegas. That really began to change the whole attitude towards expansion and taking on new opportunities. Mike Rose was also an important influence on my career as both a leader and mentor. He sent me to MIT for an 8-week Executive Development Program in 1982 to “broaden” my financial and HR literacy. It was an intense but beneficial experience that proved to be a stepping stone in my career. I was very fortunate to receive the support of Mead Dixon and Mike Rose as role models and mentors.

Bill Harrah legacy
I asked Satre if his years of operating Harrah’s were overshadowed by the legacy of longtime gaming innovator Bill Harrah.

“I think it was there for a long period of time, but eventually that did change as time passed, and the company changed,” Satre said.

“He had a very strong promotion from within policy. By the time he passed away, he’d been in business for 40 years. He had grown that business from a very small bingo parlor into the first publicly-traded gaming company, with two major hotel casinos. As the company grew in size, he promoted people from within. In many cases, it was a population of senior executives without the educational background such as you find in the industry today.

“Higher education wasn’t something that he put a high premium on. He’d rather train you on the job to be the executive that he wanted you to be.

“He was an innovator, both from an entertainment standpoint, how he treated employees and in developing the Harrah’s way. Ironically, he was extremely shy. If you shook his hand when you met him, you would have thought that he had a limp wrist. I mean, he hardly even grabbed your hand.

“He did not socialize significantly except with his entertainers. He loved entertainers. When they were performing at Harrah’s, he really showered them with attention and gifts and had them for dinner with his wife, Verna, and their spouses. He was devoted to that part of the business, and it really helped the company because we showcased some of the biggest stars in the business in our Reno and Tahoe showrooms.

“The general counsel for Harrah’s Casinos decided he did not want to continue as a lawyer who worked for a subsidiary rather than the public company. So, they asked me to become the general counsel for Harrah’s, which I agreed to do beginning January 1, 1980.

Local to Regional
I asked Satre what caused Harrah’s to make the strategic decision to move from local operators to highly-regarded regional casinos. He told me he had a memento in his office given to him when he retired.

“There is a plaque they gave me when I retired that’s in my office. It has a gaming chip from all 32 Harrah’s casinos. It increased from 2 to 32 in the period that I was CEO. The other nice thing about the plaque is it has a chart showing that if you had invested in the company during my tenure as President and CEO, a $10,000 investment by the end of that period would be $1.4 million. It’s something I’m very proud of,” Satre said.

“I do give credit to Holiday Inns; they were very ambitious developers and that was their modus operandi. The one thing that we had to do, though, was build talent, and it’s one of the reasons why I mentioned Bill Harrah’s very strong dedication to promotion from within.

“If we had continued that commitment at the level that he did, we could have never opened that many casinos, because you can’t develop that many people that rapidly. Bill Harrah would never hire somebody who worked for another casino. We started hiring people who had worked at other casinos. We had to break with some of his approaches to the business that were part of his legacy,” Satre recalled.

Gold standard
During that time of regional casino growth, Harrah’s was recognized as the gold standard of regional casino operations and marketing.

“That really came from the learnings that we had of how Bill Harrah ran the business, creating a very strong environment for employees where they knew the company would treat them well. They could be very proud of where they worked. We prided ourselves on having the lowest employee turnover in the industry by creating benefits that were more attractive than our direct competitors.

“A lot of that was the legacy Bill Harrah had passed on to us. We had to adjust our approach in some cases because we opened up in some very small markets. There were tradeoffs as we developed in smaller markets. I have to concede that, because if you look at what we were spending on some of our riverboat casinos, we were spending less than $100 million to build the casino. Well, that’s unheard of today. Now you can barely design and build a fine dining restaurant for that amount.

“Access to capital that we needed to expand was tough when we were still a part of Holiday Inns. That ultimately changed by 1995 when we spun off Harrah’s from the Promus Companies and later moved our headquarters to Las Vegas. But before that, we had to live under the approach Holiday Inns had to capital allocation. However, we were given free reign to do our marketing and to create an environment that would be attractive to our employees and customers,” Satre declared.

High standards
I asked Satre about his focus every day when he was leader of Harrah’s Casinos.

“Number one, we had to maintain our reputation for high quality products, being an outstanding employer and well-regulated, because we had to convince most of the new jurisdictions where we sought to develop casinos that we were the company they should select to build a casino in their state or their city, whether it was a Native American casino, a riverboat casino or a land-based commercial casino like the one we developed in New Orleans.

“So, part of what was in my head was, we have got to maintain high standards around our reputation for adhering to the regulatory environment. We also had to adhere to the long-standing commitment that we had shown to our employees of being the best place to work in the industry, with lower turnover, better benefits, and more opportunities for growth. Part of what we did was to create a management development program we called “Excellence in Management”, or ELM, where we gave people the opportunities to learn and grow their careers.

“I think the third thing that was most important was our belief that we could be successful by establishing casinos throughout the United States by knowing enough about the customer to make that customer our customer, not only in Atlantic City, but in Nevada or in Mississippi or in Illinois. That focus was customer relationship management, also known as CRM,” Satre recalled.

“It was critical to our success that those customers visiting us know that they would be rewarded wherever they played. So, that’s why we called it our rewards program right out of the box. Because we wanted the customer to think about it and say, ‘If I go from Atlantic City to Las Vegas and play at Harrah’s Las Vegas, or to Reno and play at Harrah’s Reno or Tahoe,’ or even one of the river boats, that customer was going to be rewarded and that was a critical part of our strategy. Developing that and learning how to be more effective at it was one of our biggest achievements as a company,” Satre declared.

Letters and long hair
One of the most famous creations in Harrah’s history was the Total Rewards program, which helped lead the gaming industry into the database era. I asked Satre to describe the beginnings of that industry changing program.

“After I became President and CEO of Harrah’s in 1984, I used to write personal notes to customers who won big jackpots or won a lot of money at the tables. I wanted them to know that I was happy that they had a good experience. I didn’t want them to feel like we didn’t want them in our casino because they won too much money. It was just the opposite.

“What then happened was I started getting letters back from those customers, and they would say, ‘Oh, I really love playing at Harrah’s in Reno, but I also love to go to Lake Tahoe, and I also like to go down to Las Vegas to play.’ We had a limited but very successful customer rewards program called “Premium Points” that had evolved during the Bill Harrah years.

“It was like S&H Green Stamps and the guest would get premium points for playing with us, and they could bring their premium point tickets in, and could get a washing machine, or a toaster oven or many other items depending on their points. So, we decided, ‘We can’t do it that way continuously, but let’s reward them with complimentaries, or cash discounts on staying in the hotel or dining in one of our restaurants.’

“So, I challenged our marketing guys, and John Boushy, one of our brightest leaders, in particular, to come up with a companywide reward program in which we can give redeemable reward points to our customers, regardless of where they play. If they play at a certain level, they’re going to get rewarded. And they’re going to get rewarded whether they’re playing in Las Vegas, if that’s where they mainly played, but if they go up to Tahoe or Reno or Atlantic City or wherever else they can use their reward points across all of our locations.

“John worked on that for a long time, and he said, ‘I won’t cut my hair until I finish this project.’ Well, by the time he was done, he had hair down to his shoulders and that was his motivation. John and his team did a great job.  When Gary Loveman joined us in 1998, he became very supportive of that as well. And we developed a talented team of people that really were devoted to making Total Rewards a game changer. It worked,” Satre related.

Still good friends
I asked Satre to tell me about his encounters with Harrah’s VIPs in the early days.

“I’m still good friends with a number of those VIPs. I just went to the 90th birthday party of one VIP guest that I met, believe it or not, in 1984,” Satre said.

Satre recounted that he would host customers from casinos all over the country on fishing trips in Alaska and dove hunting in Mexico.

“It was an era where the customer base at the VIP level was much more male dominated. Today there are many more female guests and at Wynn we have events that are devoted to wine, food and fashion, auto racing and entertainment. Everybody loves those events!” Satre said.

Bold decisions
I asked Satre what he thought was one of the boldest decisions Harrah’s made during his tenure.

“I would say that, frankly, the boldest decision was to go to Atlantic City because our founder had just died, and Atlantic City was just opening up. It was an employee environment that was going to have union representation.  It was also a much more aggressive regulatory environment. They initially mistrusted a lot of Nevada operators, and several didn’t get a license.

“I think one of the big questions that people had when we decided to open up in Atlantic City was whether or not our style of operating, which was very well known for being slot-oriented, would work on the East Coast. Everybody said this is going to be a table game environment, which, in fact, wasn’t correct. We had a lot of success with both slot customers and table game players,” Satre recalled.

Retirement projects
After retiring, most people take up retirement projects. Phil Satre’s retirement projects just happened to be chairing Nordstrom’s, NV Energy and IGT.

“I retired from Harrah’s after 25 years and decided that I was going to take a break because I’d been traveling so much and wanted to spend more time with my family. After a couple of years, I was approached by a board member who had been on the board at Harrah’s and who worked with me when I was the chairman and CEO, and he thought I would enjoy serving on boards.

“One of those was Nordstrom. The NV Energy board opportunity came about as a consequence of having interacted with some of its board.

“From the Nordstrom standpoint, I think I was recruited to join that board because of the marketing programs that we had instituted at Harrah’s and the success that we had had with customer relationship management. I served on the boards in the neighborhood of 10 to 13 years and was Chairman of both companies at the time I left. Then I also joined IGT and became Chairman of the Board until leaving in 2018 as a consequence of joining the Wynn Board,” Satre said.

Elaine Wynn
“In the spring of 2018, I received a call from an attorney who indicated that he represented Elaine Wynn. At the time she was in litigation with Wynn Resorts over longstanding disagreements with Steve and the board of directors. And the question, he said, was ‘Would you be willing to talk to Elaine about joining the board of directors of Wynn?’

“And I said, ‘I would be happy to meet with her and talk about what it was she was looking for from me’. I told her that I would only join the board if I was appointed Chairman.

“I was then contacted by the board. I went to Las Vegas, met several times with the nominating governance committee of the board about the possibility of joining the board, and there was some resistance to the Chairman condition.

“And the biggest concern that they had, and Elaine had, was the fact that they were underway with their project in Boston and they knew that it was going to be a very difficult regulatory environment. They wanted to make sure they had somebody who would have credibility with the Massachusetts Regulatory Commission.

“Ultimately, they agreed to bring me on to the board, and Elaine and the company entered into a Cooperation Agreement. The Cooperation Agreement provided that if I was elected Chairman of the Board of the company, Elaine Wynn would no longer pursue her litigation against the company, and in addition, as the largest individual shareholder, she would vote her shares in alignment with the company and she would support the company’s positions in the Annual Shareholder meeting, whatever we vote on, whether it’s to elect a new director, or it’s to change a policy or to move into a new market. The Cooperation Agreement was very important to the company.

“Ultimately it turned out very, very well for the company, due in no small part to a very high performing senior management team and Board of Directors at Wynn and because Elaine simply loved the company and was beloved by our employees.

“Elaine became a very supportive large shareholder. We had stability, and we kept that stability on the board and the company convinced regulators that we were a trustworthy organization and that we were committed to being good participants, both from the business standpoint, but also from the compliance standpoint,” Satre stated.

Different focus
I asked Satre what his focus was as Chairman of the Board of Wynn as compared to his tenure at Harrah’s.

“At Harrah’s we were committed to growing casino distribution as well as our customer base, and we would consider going into almost any viable market. Even though the market size might be very challenging.

“There is a very different focus at Wynn, in terms of how we think about our investment of capital.

“A critical part of being a board member or senior executive at Wynn is to really understand why it is we invest so much time and resources on design development; construction finishes and artistry.

“That’s one indicator of how committed the company is to the level of exceptionally high quality in terms of the design and the finishes. The second is Wynn has a very similar approach to how they treat their employees – treating everyone with dignity and respect — very low turnover, very high level of satisfaction working for the company, and at the top of competitive levels in terms of the compensation and benefits.

“And I think the company shares an experience with Harrah’s that way, but the big difference is the size, the level of capital commitment, and the market has to be a very big market for it to fit the Wynn strategy.

“The company has little interest in building the kind of smaller, less complex casinos that we built for a long time at Harrah’s. I’m very proud of those casinos. We created great customer relationships, but our approach wasn’t to overwhelm them with investment in design and so forth. I think that has been the big difference. What we’re doing now at Wynn Al Marjan Island in the United Arab Emirates is consistent with the company’s approach in Las Vegas and Macau: going into a very big market with an elegant, highly thought-out design and experienced team and making a very significant capital investment,” Satre said.

Responsible gaming’s beginnings
Knowing Satre’s devotion to responsible gaming (Harrah’s received the Gaming Hall of Fame Special Achievement Award for Responsible Gaming in October 2000), I asked how this major influence on the industry got its start.

“In the mid-1980s in Atlantic City we’d had a problem with some underage gambling, as well as some concerns about addictive gambling, so we developed two programs: Operation Bet Smart, which was for customers who were gambling too much and injuring their family life, their health or their financial wherewithal; and then Operation 21, which was a program to prevent underage gambling, which had never been as significant a problem in Nevada,” Satre said.

“There were two occasions in my early days as President and CEO of Harrah’s that motivated operation Bet Smart. One was a good friend whose mother was a gambler who could not control her desire to gamble that led to unhealthy behavior. And then, secondly, there was a customer in northern Nevada that I’d known who gambled too much, became depressed, and took his life,” Satre stated.

“That’s where we came up with Operation Bet Smart. I wrote a letter to 11 different casino operators and urged them to all join in on this. I still can remember writing that letter. ‘Would you please join me in an organization to take on problem gaming?’ Not one person responded,” Satre said.  The unspoken rule at the time was to not acknowledge problem gambling.

But that changed in the mid-’90s. As gambling was expanding, the industry was dealing with growing negative publicity and formed the American Gaming Association.

“Steve Wynn was very supportive of that, and so was Terry Lanni and the Boyd’s. So, all of us formed that organization and one of the principal elements of forming that organization was to develop the responsible gaming programs that exist today,” Satre declared.

Acceptance of gambling
I asked Satre, from his vantage point as a pivotal leader in gaming, what are the biggest changes he experienced over the years?

“I’d say the biggest changes are the acceptance of gambling on Native American property that has become very important from an employment and economic standpoint in states where Native Americans have a presence.

“The other thing, and most recent, is the growth in the last few years of online sports betting and online gambling, and the accompanying advertising at significant levels that we could never embrace and wouldn’t even be allowed to undertake for a long time. Particularly with television advertising of the type that we now have around sporting events,” Satre related.

Servant leadership
Satre’s reputation as a servant leader (long before the term was invented) prompted me to ask why he chose that direction.

“Well, that’s an interesting story, when I made the decision to go from being a lawyer to operations. I did the General Counsel thing for a short period of time, but I said,’ I really liked operations. I really like being a part of a team that’s building something, whether it’s building a great service organization, or building attractive properties, or becoming a new significant employer in a community that’s never had a big employer.’

“To create an environment where people go home from work and tell their families and their friends: ‘I really love working at this company. I am being paid well. I like the way they manage the organization. I like the benefits that I have. I like the growth opportunities that I have.’

“Stepping into that role was a really big goal of mine and to execute that well at Harrah’s and, frankly, they do it so well at Wynn. But it’s great to be a part of that as well. I have had a chance to create and to be a part of something that has longevity to it, and to look back at it and say, ‘We did it right, we did it well, and people appreciate it,'” Satre said.

I see people having fun
I asked Satre what he would tell young people who are considering a career in gaming, His answer speaks volumes about his approach to leadership and his feelings towards an industry that he has done so much to influence.

“I think what I would tell them is, don’t think of this as being just a casino experience. This is an experience that, of course, does involve a casino, and it’s a form of recreation, excitement and social exchange when it’s approached on a healthy basis. I would give them the view that there are so many other opportunities in these buildings that don’t involve just the casino floor, that involve creativity, that involve developing talent and seeing that talent suddenly blossom in front of your eyes.

“I’ve always liked the industry because I see people really having fun, you know, whether it’s at the show in the showroom and watching them walk out laughing or singing the songs of whomever the entertainer was, or repeating the jokes of a comedian. We create unforgettable experiences.

“That part is what I would tell people. Think of it that way and think of it as a part of the broader entertainment industry. If you’re thinking of it only as how much money can we win from a customer, you’re not going to be happy, but if you think of it as how much excitement, fun and special memories we can achieve then you’ll be successful,” Satre declared.

Trappings of success
I asked Satre what he thought contributed to the success that saw him become Chairman of the Board for so many iconic companies.

“I think that I’m less interested in the financial trappings of success than I am in the emotional trappings, so to speak, of being a part of a team that succeeds. That goes back to my feelings when I played football, and that group of guys who played on that team. It was an experience that created a very strong bond, and there was a tremendous amount of pride that is associated with that.

“In terms of my own leadership successes, I don’t think you can be an effective leader in this industry unless you really enjoy being around people and enjoy seeing them blossom and develop and become contributors who are proud of their careers.

“I do like being associated with organizations that treat their employees with dignity and respect and the relationship that the company has with those employees. So, it’s been a very good experience from that standpoint,” Satre said.

Do you know Phil Satre?
Satre ended the interview telling me about a very recent Satre family reunion where he was approached by a nephew’s wife, who is a nurse in San Diego and was checking out a patient not long before the family reunion. The man was staring at her name tag in an intense way.

“And she said, ‘It was really strange. I became uncomfortable. He just kept looking at my name.’ And the man finally said, ‘Are you related to Phil Satre?’

“She said yes and he said, ‘I worked at Harrah’s’ and he went on to be very flattering and very positive about his experience at Harrah’s. She said he was so proud that he’d worked at Harrah’s, has retired, and lives down in San Diego.

“That is a reward that goes well beyond how much money you make, or any of those kinds of things. To hear that this person went out of his way to compliment me. I guess I’d say that I had a few experiences like that, but never one that came to me in that way,” Satre recalled.

Legacy
Phil Satre’s legacy is one of forward-thinking strategy, corporate integrity, and commitment to elevating the standards of gaming operations in the United States.

Speaking with Phil Satre, I was impressed by his gentle manner and how he devoted time to convey the details of his career. As a genuine person, it’s easy to see how Satre’s  career reflects a rare blend of insight, visionary leadership and industry stewardship. From modernizing customer engagement at Harrah’s to restoring trust at Wynn Resorts, Satre has left an indelible mark on the casino world—one rooted in innovation, responsibility, and a dedication to employee satisfaction and customer relations.

Entries in the Faces of Gaming series:

Tom Osiecki is a casino consultant who writes an occasional column for CDC Gaming called Faces of Gaming, about interesting and engaging people in the gaming industry.

Tom Osiecki is a marketing and management consultant for Raving Consulting and can be reached for consulting engagements at 775-329-7864.

If you know of a fascinating personality in the gaming industry you would like to see profiled, please send Tom Osiecki an email at tosiecki@cdcgaming.com