LOS ANGELES COUNTY - News from Oct. 27, 1987

Financier Kirk Kerkorian has picked Phil Hannifin, a former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, to operate the Sands and Desert Inn hotel-casinos in Las Vegas.

Hannifin will be executive vice president of MGM Grand Inc., the Kerkorian-controlled company that has agreed to acquire the two gambling resorts from Summa Corp., where Hannifin formerly was executive vice president. Summa is owned by heirs of the late Howard Hughes.

From 1971 through 1977, Hannifin headed the Nevada agency, which is the investigative and enforcement part of the state’s two-tiered system to regulate the casino industry. Subsequently, he was a Summa executive and later president of Harrah’s West until last year. Harrah’s is the casino-operating subsidiary of Holiday Corp.