Yesterday (Feb. 22), former President Bill Clinton made two speeches at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, one for Harrah’s employees and another for the general public.

Clinton spoke on a variety of topics, with a focus on the importance of individual and corporate philanthropy.

The former President speaks about "Embracing Our Common Humanity."

Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. and the company’s philanthropic arm, the Harrah’s Foundation, announced a $1 million gift to the William J. Clinton Foundation. The donation, in part, will be allocated to the Clinton Foundation’s Haitian relief efforts.

Read more about the speeches at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Bust out the party favors! The Nevada Gaming Commission has approved the acquisition of Planet Hollywood by Harrah’s Entertainment. Read more about this highly-anticipated development on the Las Vegas Strip.

The official statement about today’s news says: “Harrah’s expects to consummate the restructuring transaction and assume ownership and operation of the Las Vegas Planet Hollywood on Feb. 19, 2010.” What Las Vegas story would be complete without a little consummating, come to think of it?

We look forward to Planet Hollywood becoming a part of the Harrah’s Entertainment family! Exciting times lie ahead.

Oooh, sparkly.

It’s official: Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. (the company that owns all the Pulse of Vegas resorts featured in this blog) will assume management of the hotel at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip on Jan. 16, 2010 (at midnight).

The Planet Hollywood hotel is next to Harrah’s Entertainment’s Paris Las Vegas Hotel & Casino.

Planet Hollywood had its grand opening Nov. 16, 2007, replacing the Aladdin Hotel.

Gary Loveman, chairman, CEO and president of Harrah’s Entertainment said, “Harrah’s has been in discussions with Planet Hollywood and its lender group regarding a restructuring of the ownership of the resort. We continue to work on a plan that would allow Harrah’s to own and manage the entire casino resort property. In the meantime, we are pleased to take on the management of the Planet Hollywood Hotel for the current owners.”

More news will soon be on the way.

You’ll never guess who stopped by our corporate offices here at Harrah’s Entertainment! Yep, this guy.

Beard? Check. Hat? Check. Jolly? Check.

Come to find out, this prone-to-chuckling fellow drops by our headquarters often, but tends to get more double-takes around this time of the year.

Our postal carrier, Craig, is the spitting image of everyone’s favorite holiday visitor. We thought about calling him “jolly ol’ St. Craig,” but weren’t sure Craig would appreciate that so much. We’d prefer not to end up on anyone’s “naughty” list.

Shorts! Another reason to flee the cold and head to Vegas.

On behalf of St. Craig, a proud representative of the U.S. Postal Service, and the whole blog team here at Harrah’s, have a wonderful, safe, sassy holiday season. At one of our Las Vegas hotels if possible, but anywhere is fine.

Don't argue with jolly ol' St. Craig. We insist on your having "Happy Holidays"!

iSpin, the new slot machine-inspired app from Harrah’s Entertainment, has a new high scorer. A persistent player (name withheld, for no good reason) has accumulated a whopping 256,882 ”credits” on this play-for-fun game.

Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Truth is, the people who made the game didn’t actually think anyone would progress beyond 10,000 credits or so. No kidding.

We used to have lots of free time. Now we have iSpin. 'Nuff said.

iSpin fever has now spread to all four corners of the globe. Which, we should say, we don’t fully understand, because the last time we looked, globes don’t have corners. Let’s not get bogged down in details.

This fun, free app has been downloaded by players in more than 50 countries, including the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Singapore, Malaysia, Latvia, Kazakstan, Chile, Indonesia, Peru and Kuwait.

Other perks of iSpin: iSpin features customizable “skins” and slot reels, realistic casino sound effects and Total Rewards member can use the app to access their account information. Download iSpin and get in on the fun. Did we mention the free part? Learn more here.

A group of Harrah’s Entertainment team members donated more than 600 turkeys to people in need this weekend. Learn more.

Harrah’s Entertainment Chief Financial Officer and all-around-good-guy Jonathan Halkyard was among the employees who spread some holiday joy. Halkyard, who also works extensively with Nevada Ballet Theatre, United Way of Southern Nevada and the American Red Cross of Southern Nevada, when asked about the involvement of Harrah’s Entertainment, said, “We employ more than 20,000 people here in our town, and serve even more as guests. As one of the largest employers, it’s critical that we reach out. It’s so easy to help, and Harrah’s makes it even easier.”

The event was organized by Nevada Partners, a nonprofit that provides education, employment and training services. Learn more.

Big plans are in the works for one of the Las Vegas Strip’s most recognizable resorts, Planet Hollywood!

Harrah’s Entertainment head honcho (technically, “Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,” and all-around great guy, and we’re not just saying that to kiss up) Gary Loveman just announced plans for the company to buy the Planet Hollywood Resort. (Harrah’s Entertainment owns and operates all the Pulse of Vegas resorts featured in this very blog.)

Read more about this exciting news. More details to come!

The original Planet Hollywood restaurant opened on Oct. 22, 1991, backed by Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

We can’t help it. We lead charges. It’s what we do.

In this case, the charge we’re leading is the “greening of the Strip.” MSNBC just published a great article about how our Pulse of Vegas resorts, and other hotels on the Strip, are making dramatic strides on the conservation front. Read more.

A highlight: “Harrah’s Entertainment, which owns Bally’s, Caesars Palace and Paris Las Vegas, among others, has spent $60 million on conservation projects over the last six years. In Las Vegas, major efforts include a multi-resort laundry facility that cuts water use by 30 percent — despite a 40 percent increase in capacity — and a five-megawatt cogeneration plant at the Rio that generates enough electricity to power one of the hotel’s two towers.”

You should get a cogeneration plant. They’re awesome.

Our effort is called CodeGreen. We were going to call it CodeChartreuse, but look at all the ink and pixels we conserved!

We’re not going to go on and on about how green we are. That’s not how we roll. Although we do sometimes add links to our blog posts that lead to interesting lists of awards we get for our greenish efforts. Hey, it happens.

Think you’re serious about slots? You’d have to be very serious to eclipse the current high scorer on iSpin, the free iPhone app from Harrah’s Entertainment (motto: “Leading the world in coughing up the mind-blowing awesomeness every flippin’ day!” OK, so it’s not the “official” motto, but we’re working on it).

You can beat 194,149 credits. Really. Try. We'll wait.

The current high scorer (from L.A.) in this fun, slot-themed, play-for-fun game has somehow managed to rack up a mind-blowingly awesome (see?!) 194,149 points.

To put that into perspective, the average score on iSpin is 675. After doing some math, we calculate that the current high score is MANY MORE TIMES greater than the average. (We’re a blog. Math is not our thing.)

So, read more about this fun app, and download iSpin and get into the game.

We’re getting such great feedback about the new Total Experiences service, a program that takes care of planning group getaways, we feel compelled to share some of the raves of a recent Vegas visitor, Oliver.

He entrusted his once-in-a-lifetime family gathering to a Total Experiences Specialist (like a personal concierge), and he’s been singing the program’s praises ever since. Take it away, Oliver.

“Earlier this year, we decided that for my dad’s 60th (birthday) we would all go on a trip to Las Vegas. Having spent some time trying to organize the trip from the U.K., making transatlantic phone calls and surfing a host of Web sites trying to book, I was introduced to the Total Experiences program.

“We were able to enjoy ourselves, safe in the knowledge that tickets were booked for the best seats, reservations were made in the best restaurants and no time was wasted, as we skipped every queue to sit in the best VIP areas of nightclubs. We were treated like royalty. It was a dream come true for my dad to meet Bette Midler and get his photo taken with her. Three weeks later and the photo with Bette has replaced my mother’s picture on his office desk!”

We love this guy!

Some people like caviar. Oliver is downright gleeful about it. Living it up at Bradley Ogden.

Oliver’s Total Experiences-planned stay included Qua Baths & Spa, dinner at Bradley Ogden (Caesars Palace) and Ah-Sin (Paris Las Vegas), Fremont Street, golf and VIP access at PURE nightclub, all arrangements taken care of by a Total Experiences Specialist, free of charge.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t share what one member of Oliver’s party said: “Definitely the best holiday I have ever been on and probably the most fun week I have ever had.” Hey, it’s what we do!

Learn more about the launch of the new Total Experiences service.

Update: Some people have great Vegas experiences. Oliver had a Total Experiences experience. See below.

Our community-conscious employee-volunteers won’t toot their own horns, but we’re happy to do it.

This past weekend, H.E.R.O (Harrah’s Entertainment Reaching Out) employee-volunteers, from our eight Pulse of Vegas resorts, took the environmental lead by participating in Make a Difference Day 2009 (Oct. 24), at a local school, George E. Harris Elementary.

Ellen, an IT pro for Harrah's Entertainment, helps unload goodies for a new "edible garden" at the school.

The 60 volunteers, along with students, teachers and parents, brought environmentally-sustainable upgrades to the school.

Faculty, students and volunteers work on the school's new garden.

Also part of the day was a book cleaning for Spread the Word Nevada: Kids to Kids, a nonprofit that distributes books to at-risk students in Southern Nevada. Our Flamingo Las Vegas headliner, Donny Osmond, has been involved with this organization, too. See more.

Spread the Word Nevada founder Laurie Hartig helps volunteers and students with cleaning books donated by the community.

We love our employee-volunteers. They’re definitely making a difference. Learn more about Make a Difference Day.

When we say we’ve gone green, we mean it!

Seven Harrah’s Entertainment (owners of the Pulse of Vegas destinations featured in this blog) resorts in Las Vegas have received “Travelife Gold” awards for green/sustainable tourism. All eight resorts earned accreditation from Europe-based Travelife Sustainability Systems.

Harrah’s is the only gaming-entertainment company to have achieved Travelife accreditation at multiple resorts in Las Vegas, and the only to receive multiple gold awards. Caesars Palace, Paris, Flamingo, Bally’s, Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon, Harrah’s, and Rio won the Travelife Gold awards, and Imperial Palace received a silver award.

Humility, ahem, precludes us from talking more about ourselves, so read more here.

Here’s a factoid about our new slot-inspired iPhone app called iSpin. This fun app has now been downloaded by folks in 21 countries.

Shake your thingy to make the reels spin. Does that sound wrong?

The top five countries that seem to have taken a liking to our app are Canada, the U.K., France, Australia and Japan. Thanks! We like your exports, too.

Read our recent post about iSpin, or get more details and just download this customizable (if that’s really a word), play-for-fun app already.

Just announced, a new service for small groups coming to Las Vegas. It’s Total Experiences, the ultimate way to do a Vegas getaway. (Yes, actually, we took a poetry class in college.) Take a look.

If you’re coming to Vegas for a wedding, girlfriend getaway, group golf outing, bachelor or bachelorette party or reunion, Total Experiences can provide personalized concierge services, free of charge with any group booking.

In Vegas, it's all about access, baby.

Get the high roller treatment! Everyone in your group will love you, and you’ll avoid the headaches that come with planning a group event.

Total Experiences is all about being able to skip the details so you and your group can focus on having an absolute blast. Find out more.

Here’s another exclusive Pulse of Vegas blog scoop! We love saying things are a “scoop” because it almost makes it seem like there’s actual journalism involved.

Hot off the virtual presses, it’s the release of a new iPhone app called iSpin, a realistic slot machine game from Harrah’s Entertainment, masters of the gaming entertainment universe. (We’ll be trademarking that tagline, thank you.)

"Free" and "app" just sound so good together.

iSpin has true-to-life casino sounds, and you can customize the game “skins” using graphics from your favorite real-world casinos like Harrah’s, Caesars Palace, Rio, Paris, Flamingo and others.

Shake your iPhone to spin the reels. Freaky cool.

iSpin gives you a way to keep track of your high scores and allows for multiple players on the same iPhone or iPod Touch.

Yes, it's just for fun. And, yes, imaginary winnings are still fun!

iSpin is especially useful for Total Rewards members. Members can use iSpin to log into their Total Rewards accounts to view their Tier Score, Reward Credits balances, etc. Maybe you should learn a bit more about this Total Rewards thing, huh? Go here.

You’ll love personalizing your slot machine’s reels, as in the photo below.

No animals were harmed in the customizing of these reels.

Take your favorite casino with you, wherever you go. It’s free. It’s fun. And remember, you heard it here first. Learn more here, then download it! Have a blast!