Harrah's raised its original 125p-a-share offer to 135p a share,and in return Genting, which holds a 29.6% stake in LCI, has agreedto accept the bid. The improved offer represents an 8% increase onHarrah's original euro 417-million ($524-million) offer, a 36.6%premium on LCI's share price of 98.8p prior to the original offer.Its acquisition of Genting's stake takes acceptances for theHarrah's takeover to 34.4%. Other shareholders in both companieswere waiting to see what Genting would do before committingthemselves.

The deal between is now expected to be followed by othershareholders falling into line behind the deal. The revised offerwill become unconditional when acceptances have reached 75%, asopposed to the 90% threshold in the terms of the originaloffer.

LCI operates seven casinos in the UK and has four underdevelopment. It also operates two in Egypt, one in South Africa andhas a relationship with a casino in Lebanon.