Lanni

Kirk Kerkorian, the company's top investor, called Lanni a trusted friend and invaluable colleague.

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AFP/Getty Images Terry Lanni in December 2007 Mr. Lanni, who stepped down as chief executive officer in 2008, died Thursday at age 68, after a two-year battle with cancer.

CEO Gave Gambling More Respectability Alexandra Berzon 2011

"Now we spend that much on a restaurant," Mr. Lanni said in the interview.

CEO Gave Gambling More Respectability Alexandra Berzon 2011

As top Las Vegas lieutenant to Mr. Kerkorian, Mr. Lanni oversaw MGM's mergers with Mirage Resorts and the Mandalay Resort Group, key deals in its expansion to become a dominant gambling company now known as MGM Resorts International .

CEO Gave Gambling More Respectability Alexandra Berzon 2011

Mr. Lanni guided first Caesars World and later MGM as the casino industry grew in corporate backing and political power out of its mob-infested roots.

CEO Gave Gambling More Respectability Alexandra Berzon 2011

Mr. Lanni oversaw the transformation of a seedy old Howard Johnson's in Atlantic City into a casino and hotel—a conversion that cost $15.5 million.

CEO Gave Gambling More Respectability Alexandra Berzon 2011

A key figure in Nevada and national Republican politics, Mr. Lanni also maintained ties to Democrats, including Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Shelley Berkley, both from Nevada, and became one of the industry's most effective political advocates on the national stage.

CEO Gave Gambling More Respectability Alexandra Berzon 2011

Mr. Fahrenkopf first met Mr. Lanni in the 1980s, when Mr. Fahrenkopf was chairman of the Republican National Committee and Mr. Lanni was becoming known as an important Republican political donor on the national stage.

CEO Gave Gambling More Respectability Alexandra Berzon 2011

Terry Lanni 1943-2011 Terry Lanni was the longtime CEO of MGM Mirage, the casino company founded by Kirk Kerkorian that grew into one of the largest gambling concerns in the world, with nearly a dozen casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, as well as a venture in Macau, now the world's largest gambling capital.

CEO Gave Gambling More Respectability Alexandra Berzon 2011

A 1965 graduate of the University of Southern California, Mr. Lanni got involved in casinos in 1977, after a stint on the Gerald Ford presidential campaign and several years in corporate finance.

CEO Gave Gambling More Respectability Alexandra Berzon 2011