In an effort to spread the word that the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is not just a hamburger joint, the company recently added seven play-for-fun casino games to its website.
"It's important at this point that the public sees the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas as a casino," said Warwick Stone, creative director. "We on the inside tend to forget that a lot of people view us as Hard Rock Café--primary interest in selling hamburgers. We are not; we are Hard Rock Hotel and Casino."
The games, which made their debut on the hotel and casino's site last Monday, are slots, video poker, roulette, craps, blackjack, Caribbean poker and table poker. The software was designed by dot com Entertainment Group Inc.
Several of the games, Stone said, are skinned with the actual art he used to design the Hard Rock's casino tables. Scott White, dot com's president and CEO, said the roulette, blackjack, Caribbean poker and table poker games were customized to evoke the Las Vegas hotel.
"We took the look and the feel that are present in their casino and adapted them to the games on the Web," White said. "For example, in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino they have what's called the Peacock Lounge, which is sort of a high-stakes area of their casino, so we took that look and feel and put it on top of our games."
Stone said he hasn't gotten word yet on how many people have used the feature, but that he plans to add more games in the future, such as dot com' s bingo. He chose Internet bingo and casino technology company to design the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino's games because dot com seemed very knowledgeable and forward-thinking, he said.
"What I liked in particular was the back-end of their product, which we haven't put up yet, but which will allow for us to play for points or other features," he said. "As soon as we can arrange it we're going to get play for prizes and that kind of thing."
When it is launched, which could be as soon as a month, Stone said, the play-for-prizes feature would require the user to set up an account with the website. Hotel stays would be among the prizes.
"Mostly I'm interested in driving traffic towards our hotel, so it would be 'earn a weekend stay,' or something like that," he said.
White said his company's software would help the hotel and casino build Hard Rock-oriented brand loyalty on its site. A program like that is in the works, along with other e-digital services dot com will supply.
"We will assist them in sort of a regeneration look and feel of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino's website, to focus it more on a gaming-style portal as opposed to an informational portal, the way it exists right now," he said. "It's not part of the original deal, but it's something we're putting together."
Neither company's representative would reveal how much money the dot com-Hard Rock deal was worth.
As for whether the games are intended to prime Web users for gambling with their favorite Las Vegas casinos via the Internet, Stone said he wasn't thinking that far ahead.
"If any changes in the regulations were to occur," he said, "we would want to be fully experienced with all the options in online software. So we're just practicing and making alliances with who we see to be the most qualified and honest participants in this software designing field."