Goodman meets again on Internet gaming

Diana Sahagun

Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2001 | 9:30 a.m.

Intent on seeking out new ways for the city to market itself and increase revenues, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman met last week with officials from an online casino interested in using the city's name and official seal in its venture.

Goodman has touted the idea of lending the city's name to a casino website since last year, when VegasOne.com, an Australian-based Internet site, proposed the idea. Goodman, however, abstained from the item after learning of a possible conflict of interest -- his law firm had once represented a likely investor, Bob Stupak.

On Thursday the mayor had the second of two meetings with officials from Virtgame.com, a City Hall official said. Headquartered in San Diego, the company has "developed a technology that identifies the geographic location of a customer, allowing Internet gaming to be offered only to targeted markets in targeted geographic regions," according to its website.

The mayor had similar meetings in August with an unnamed Internet company that was interested in using the city's name and seal on its site. If the city had sold its name to the proposed Internet casino based in Australia, it would have received 25 percent of the company's profits.

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