Playboy Enterprises, Inc. was originally founded by the late Hugh Hefner in 1953 as HMH Publishing to initially manage the Playboy magazine empire. The company today is structured with two primary business segments: Media (which manages content for print, digital, social, mobile, TV and radio platforms) and Licensing (which licenses the Playboy name, Rabbit Head design and other trademarks, logos and images for use in connection with consumer goods, venues and events).

Today, Playboy Enterprises, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development and distribution of content, products and high-profile events that embody both “eroticism and fine art.” The Playboy rabbit logo is one of the most widely recognized and popular brands in the world.

Playboy also ran forty Playboy Club properties from 1960 to 1986. Playboy operated casinos in England from the mid-1960s to 1981, when they lost their operating license. Playboy also operated a casino in Nassau, Bahamas from 1978 to 1982. From 1981 to 1984, the company was a partner in the Playboy Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Playboy Enterprises was denied a permanent New Jersey gaming license and was forced to sell out to its partner, which changed the name of the hotel/casino to the Atlantis Hotel and Casino. The company returned to the nightlife business with the Playboy Club at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, which opened in 2006 and closed in 2012. Other Playboy Clubs opened in Cancun, Macau, and London in 2010 and 2011.