Las Vegas ponders gambling Web site

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) -- For more than 70 years, Las Vegas has been closely associated with one thing -- gambling.

Wagering, after all, put the city on the map, filled its coffers and fueled its rise as the fastest growing metro area in America over the last decade.

Now a proposal to put the city's seal on an Internet gambling site is raising a key question: How closely associated with gambling should Las Vegas be?

A group of former casino executives and industry experts have approached the city, hoping to set up an Internet casino site -- VegasOne.com -- for non-U.S. citizens by April.

The executives want the city to lend its name and seal to the site, thinking it will assure credibility. The City Council is considering the idea.

"It's a moral question," Bill Thompson, a professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and a gambling industry expert, said Tuesday. "I've always had the position that government should be neutral on gambling."

Las Vegas would make 5 percent of the site's gross revenues and 25 percent of its profits. That could mean $90 million a year going toward much-needed city projects if the site generated $360 million a year, said Tony Cabot, a Las Vegas casino industry lawyer who represents developers of the site.

"It has the potential to bring millions of dollars to the city for projects that need one-time funding," city spokesman Erik Pappa said. "The city has a lot of needs, everything from parks to projects that could re-energize the downtown area."

It makes sense that the nation's gambling Mecca wants a slice of the Internet betting action. Nearly 700 Internet sites offer online gambling, a business expected to grow from $1.1 billion in 1999 to $3 billion in 2002, according to The River City Group, consultants to the online gambling industry.

But Internet gambling is illegal in Nevada and some consider it illegal in the United States. Because of that, VegasOne.com will be licensed and regulated in Australia and only non-U.S. residents could use it to place bets.

The Justice Department contends federal law prohibits Internet gambling in the United States under the 1961 Wire Communications Act, which was written to cover sports betting over the telephone.

The commercial casino industry opposes Las Vegas slapping its name on the proposed Internet site, saying it wouldn't create new jobs and might complicate government's role.

"If it does become legal, you have the city competing against the state's largest taxpayer and largest industry," said Bill Bible, chairman of the Nevada Resort Association, which represents the state's largest casinos.

Cabot sees it differently.

"The seal and the name are less important," he said. "What's really important is that the city provide the necessary oversight, so that persons who go on the site will feel comfortable that it is being adequately regulated."

Thompson, the UNLV professor, said the proposal seems premature because of the legal status of Internet gambling. But if the city does place its seal on the Web site, players would know they are gambling on a reputable site.

The City Council was expected Wednesday to ask VegasOne.com whether it would agree to a three-month trial run of its site without bets actually being accepted.

Mayor Oscar Goodman proposed the trial period, but said Tuesday he will refrain from any more discussion and from voting on the proposal because his law firm had previously represented one of the company's investors.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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