Venetian’s ideas for Internet venture far from traditional

David Strow

Friday, Sept. 28, 2001 | 9:37 a.m.

When Nevada took the first steps toward legalized Internet gaming, most people envisioned electronic versions of casinos piped over the Internet onto home computers.

That's been the basic form of Internet gaming across the world so far, and that's the form Las Vegas casino companies are currently exploring. But one Las Vegas casino, the Venetian, is exploring offering electronic gambling through wireless devices as well, such as cell phones and handheld organizers.

The Venetian often isn't mentioned among the Nevada companies at the front lines of Internet gaming. Yet Christopher Stacey, Internet marketing manager for the Venetian, insisted the Strip resort is closely examining opportunities to move into cyberspace gambling -- both in Nevada and overseas. One Las Vegas-based casino operator, MGM MIRAGE, has already secured a license to operate an online casino in the British-controlled Isle of Man.

"We're certainly looking at all avenues," Stacey said at the Interactive Gaming Expo and Conference, which ends today at the Bellagio hotel-casino. "There's lots of talk (about legalized Internet gambling) from the Isle of Man, Australia, the U.K. We haven't decided any one to be the correct one right now."

But the "traditional" Internet casino is only one facet of the strategy. The Venetian is also closely examining the possibility of wireless gaming -- that is, offering for-cash gambling games that can be played over a web-enabled cell phone, or a handheld electronic organizer such as a Palm Pilot -- both from within the property and across the world.

The Venetian is taking steps to use wireless devices in non-gaming activities. For example, Stacey said the hotel has developed software that allows a wireless device to be used to book a guest into their room. The software is now available only to Venetian employees, but could be made available later to hotel guests, Stacey said.

And the hotel has installed cell-phone transmitters throughout the hotel, ensuring that most wireless devices can be used anywhere in the property -- and making it easy to offer wireless applications to hotel guests.

But Stacey said there are several challenges to offering such games over wireless devices. Their download speeds are low, and the small screens make it challenging to offer a high-quality game.

"It's an evolving market," Stacey said. "You certainly aren't going to take everything (from an Internet casino) and drop it onto a Palm."

But technology is quickly solving both problems -- the download speed of wireless devices is constantly increasing, and handheld devices are moving closer to challenging laptop computers in processing power and display quality.

Plus, wireless manufacturers are moving toward placing GPS chips in their devices -- chips that allow the exact position of a device to be known at all times. That could offer a solution to one of the big concerns Nevada gaming regulators have about Internet gaming -- how to be sure that a player is located in a jurisdiction where Internet gambling is legal.

"Once GPS proliferates, it makes it a little more feasible," Stacey said.

Tony Fontaine, vice president of complex business solutions for Station Casinos, said GPS could also make phone wagering a lot easier. Station offers registered Las Vegas residents the ability to place wagers by telephone; GPS would allow customers the ability to use their cell phones, something they can't do now.

The location issue could also be solved by using cable or DSL service, Fontaine said.

"With cable and DSL, you know exactly where these people are," Fontaine said.

Through a subsidiary called Gamecast, Station has technology that allows live casino games, such as blackjack and slots, to be broadcast over the Internet for use in an online casino. Instead of wagering on a software simulation, players would wager on a remote slot machine or an actual blackjack game. Wagering from a hotel room is one of the original applications, though Fontaine said it could be used over the Internet.

"You could have a slot machine at the Venetian and play it from England," Fontaine said.

But Station's main strategy is to license this technology to other companies, rather than trying to develop its own Internet casino for play across the world.

"We're not a big media brand name," Fontaine said.

Those companies that do have strong brand names will be looking for opportunities to get involved in Internet gambling, even if they haven't been involved in the gaming industry before, said Andrew Pascal, president and chief executive of WagerWorks, the company that created and operates MGM MIRAGE's for-fun Internet gaming site.

"If this market is half as big as (analysts) estimate it could be, I don't think that there's a company that has a strong brand that won't take a long hard look at this," Pascal said.

But brand names alone won't assure success in the world of Internet gambling, he said.

"We have to provide the players with a really compelling gambling experience," Pascal said. "If the underlying game doesn't satisfy the player, it doesn't matter what the brand is."

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