A few weeks into the marriage, many are still wondering how effectively Harrah's can integrate its new flagship, Caesars Palace. Will the company run off high-rollers, Baby Boomers and hipsters to cultivate oldster slot club holders?

Some point to the acquisition of Jack Binion's Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corp. as a sign of things to come.

Harrah's says it is maintaining Binion's empire and hasn't run off any longtime Horseshoe gamblers. But revenue and operating cash flow have so far declined since Harrah's purchased the three Horseshoe casinos in the Midwest and South last year. The properties had been top performers in their respective markets by cultivating high-rollers at the tables. It's probably too early to say whether Harrah's will ultimately succeed in maintaining or even improving performance.

Whether Harrah's makes changes at Caesars will depend on whether customers are profitable.

Casino stock analyst Matthew Jacob of Majestic Research in New York believes there's plenty of room for improvement at Caesars' Strip properties. Unlike many prognosticators, Jacob has figures to back that up.

Majestic Research collects and crunches data to come up with a "real-time" assessment of casino efficiency. The firm doesn't offer stock ratings or investment banking services like many on Wall Street.

Caesars' percentage of games played relative to the number of games on its casino floors is smaller than at Harrah's two Las Vegas resorts, both in terms of slots and tables, Jacob said in a research report issued this month.

By Jacob's estimate, Harrah's is using roughly 36 percent of its tables compared with only about 30 percent for the Caesars properties. The biggest difference was in slots that cost $1 and up, where Harrah's was using about 44 percent of those games versus only 10 percent for Caesars. In the "small slots" category, Harrah's came in at 33 percent versus 26 percent for Caesars.

Compared with the competition, Harrah's also is getting more than its fair share of slot and table customers on the Strip than Caesars, he said.

In short, Jacob believes Caesars' casinos are less efficient than Harrah's. As a percentage of the total floor, fewer Caesars games are being played than Harrah's.

In spite of vast superficial differences between the properties, the breakdown of games played is roughly the same at both Harrah's and Caesars Strip properties, Jacob found.

Across both brands, 57 percent of the games played were slot machines over the past 12 months, he said. At Harrah's, 31 percent of games played were tables and 12 percent were high-end slots of $1 and up. That compares with 33 percent table games and 11 percent high-end slots at Caesars.

By contrast, the Horseshoe properties, as well as Harrah's purchase of the Rio in 1999, involved already-efficient casinos, he said.

The Horseshoe acquisition isn't yet a year old. But the Rio purchase may be more instructive.

Harrah's made lots of changes at the Rio amid depressed casino performance in the next few years after the purchase, including the elimination of its high-roller table game business. While many locals still complain of the corporate culture at the Rio, tourists and especially the youthful club-hoppers that have flocked to the place in recent years appear to like what they see.

The property eventually recovered and prospered. It's now more profitable than it was under the previous owners, generating operating cash flow in 2004 that was 30 percent higher than pre-acquisition levels, Jacob said.

Jacob has arrived at the same conclusion that Harrah's Chief Executive Gary Loveman has labored to pitch to investors over the past several months. But it sounds better coming from a firm that doesn't also arrange financing deals for casinos.

"Acquiring Caesars' four Las Vegas Strip resorts should allow Harrah's to provide more options for its Total Rewards players when they visit Las Vegas," Jacob said. "This, in turn, should allow Harrah's to capture a larger share of the players' gaming budget while in Las Vegas," particularly at the (Caesars) properties."

Liz Benston covers gaming for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4077 or by e-mail at benston@lasvegassun.com.