Las Vegas Almost Sold its Soul
Las Vegas
Jul 19, 2001, 16:39
By Gambling Online Magazine http://www.gamblingonlinemagazine.com
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Does Las Vegas support online gambling? Not officially, but that didn't stop the Las Vegas City Council from http://www.vegasone.com/ to "lend" its name and its endorsement to the proposed Australian Internet gambling site. The Las Vegas company, VegasOne.com, was proposing to set up a licensed Australian online casino using the name VegasOne.com and paying the Las Vegas City Council to give it their official seal of approval.
The proposed deal would have provided the city of Las Vegas with 5% of the site's gross gaming revenue and 25% of their net gaming profits. According to Las Vegas attorney and Internet Gaming expert Anthony Cabot, that percentage would have been worth about $90 million to the city in the year 2003 alone.
Although in the end, the City Council refused the deal with VegasOne.com, it has still raised real questions as to the value of a top URL and a recognized casino "brand" name.
According to dot com consultants, a good domain is one that is easy to remember, and one that will come up at the top of a search engine when you type in gambling keywords. Some of the best casino names on the net are the simplest. http://www.casino.com/, http://www.blackjack.com/, http://www.poker.com/ are just a few that are easy to remember and to the point. Argueably these names are worth millions in and of themselves, but combined with the search engine bonuses they get when they are matched to an identical search term, these names are as good as gold. That is why VegasOne.com felt that the "official" use of the name Vegas would be worth the 25% in what is essentially a royalty fee to the city.
Why did the City of Las Vegas fail once again to get into the 2000's and join the Internet revolution? Mayor Goodman sited "conflict of interest" as his reason for abstaining from the vote. Following that, Councilman Michael Mac and Councilman Michael McDonald both followed suit and decided to sit the vote out. With fleeting support the deal went from the hottest news in town to yesterday's news; or does Las Vegas have something else up their sleeve? Is the rumor that Las Vegas is considering intra-state and possible inter-state gaming a reality? This would of course explain the "conflict of interest" Goodman referred to.
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