Frank Fertitta III, chief executive of Station Casinos, received $125.9 million in total compensation in 2007, which not only was the highest total for the year, but was the highest total of any year since In Business began compiling the list. This year's list appears in today's edition, beginning on Page 24.

Fertitta succeeds MGM Mirage Chief Executive Terry Lanni, who held the top spot last year. Lanni fell to No. 11 this year with $22.2 million, the first time he has been out of the top 10 since 2002, the first year the list was published.

The list was compiled by In Business researchers Ulf Buchholz and Marcia Mohr and is based on total compensation packages reported by public companies in the 2007 fiscal year filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This year's list includes 93 executives, although the list of highest-paid executives that will be published at the end of this year in the In Business Book of Business Lists will have about 150 names.

Station Casinos executives held six of the top 10 positions this year, primarily because stock options were exercised when the company went private. Two Station executives in the top 10 no longer are with the company because their contracts were bought out in the $8.8 billion transaction with Los Angeles-based Colony Capital.

An executive's total compensation is based on salary, nonequity incentive plans, deferred income packages and exercised stock options. A detailed explanation of how compensation is calculated is on Page 23.

Other Station executives making the top 10: Lorenzo Fertitta, president, brother of Frank III, at No. 2 with compensation of $113.8 million; Scott Nielson, executive vice president and chief development officer, No. 5 with $41.6 million; and Richard Haskins, executive vice president and general counsel, No. 9 with $22.7 million.

Former Station executives who made the top 10 were Bill Warner, executive vice president and chief financial officer, No. 4, $49.2 million; and Glenn Christenson, executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief administrative officer, No. 6, $34.1 million.

Present and former MGM Mirage executives rounded out the top 10. Bobby Baldwin, chief design and construction officer, was ranked No. 3 with compensation of $53.9 million. He was followed by John Redmond, former chief executive and president of MGM Grand Resorts, No. 7, $31.2 million; Jim Murren, president and chief operating officer, No. 8, $28.8 million; and Gary Jacobs, executive vice president and general counsel, No. 10, $22.3 million.

This year's list had the first instance of compensation going over $100 million a year since it was first published. In an all-time top 10 list of highest executive pay years, Frank Fertitta III made the list three times: 2007's $125.9 million, 2004's compensation of $94.7 million (No. 3) and 2005's compensation of $42.7 million (No. 9).

Lorenzo Fertitta made that list twice: 2007's $113.8 million (No. 2) and 2004's $48 million (No. 6).

Baldwin's and Warner's 2007 compensation ranked No. 4 and 5 all time and others on that list included Mandalay Resort Group's Mike Ensign and Bill Richardson, $46.8 million (tied for No. 7). Station Casinos' Nielson rounded out the top 10 with his $41.6 million compensation this year.

As usual, the gaming industry dominated the compensation list. In the list of 93 executives, 22 of them, or 23.7 percent, were from nongaming companies. The next highest industry represented was banking.

The highest nongaming executive to make the list was Farid Suleman, chief executive of Citadel Broadcasting Corp., No. 12 with compensation of $21.8 million.

The highest-paid woman on the list was Linda Chen, president of Wynn International Marketing, No. 22, with compensation of $5.8 million.

Only six other women made the list: Judith Ellis, chief operating officer of Citadel Broadcasting, No. 42, $1.6 million; Patricia Stratford, senior vice president of finance and administration of Citadel Broadcasting, No. 75, $651,195; Mary Higgins, chief financial officer of Herbst Gaming, No. 77, $641,377; Jacqueline Orr, vice president and general counsel of Citadel Broadcasting, No. 84, $598,265; Denise Barton, senior vice president and chief financial officer of American Casino & Entertainment Properties, No. 85, $579,088; and Janet Greeson, chief executive and president of Samaritan Pharmaceuticals, No. 90, $523,329.

Las Vegas-based Citadel Broadcasting has 223 radio stations nationwide, four in Reno and none in Southern Nevada.

Because of stock options and other compensation, many of the high-profile executives aren't necessarily the highest-paid in a given year.

For example, Lanni isn't the top-paid executive at MGM Mirage this year, trailing Baldwin, Murren and Jacobs.

Sheldon Adelson, chief executive of Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns the Venetian, is No. 30 on the list with compensation of $3.1 million, but trails President Bill Weidner, who is No. 29 with $3.6 million.

Other high-profile executives and their standing on the list: Steve Wynn, chief executive of Wynn Resorts, No. 13 with compensation of $11.2 million; Gary Loveman, chief executive and president of Harrah's Entertainment, No. 16 with $8.2 million; and Bill Boyd, chairman of Boyd Gaming, No. 28 with $3.8 million.

Of the 93 names, 32 are employed by the so-called "Big 6" casino companies based in Southern Nevada. Seven of the 32 are from Station Casinos, six are from MGM Mirage, five are from Wynn Resorts, five are from Harrah's, five are from Las Vegas Sands and four are from Boyd Gaming.