Five hotel/casino companies--Mirage Resorts Inc., Mandalay Resort Group, Mare-Bear, Inc. and Victoria Partners--claim that the Los Angeles-based Stardust Co. and its two online casinos are passing themselves as being affiliated and sponsored by a handful of Las Vegas hotel-casinos, according to a recent Las Vegas Sun article.
Accordingly, the hotels have filed suit in District Court, accusing Stardust Co. of "cybersquatting" through the use of domain names such as stardust casino.com, miragecasino.net, stardustgaming.com, stardustcompany.com, dunescasino.net, goldennuggetcasino.com, themontecarlocasino.net and thecircuscircus.com. (Cybersquatting is commonly used to acquire large profits through the resale of domain names that would normally be associated with a trademarked business' name.)
The Stardust hotel/casino reportedly discovered their trademarked name in use by another online casino after contact from a customer who wanted to place a wager online. Their legal counsel researched the Network Solutions Inc. registry - NSI assigns domain names to whoever asks for it first - and found that four of the sites were linked to offshore sites.
The hotel/casinos wanted to protect consumers who might be on the receiving end of any potential unfair business practices. The LV Sun quotes the suit, "While the defendants might choose to run a completely reputable and above board operation, they might also not choose to do so, and at present, there is no governmental authority to ensure that consumers are protected when placing a bet over the Internet with these defendants."
"There is no question that if the defendants defraud, or even offer poor quality services to consumers under the 'Stardust', 'Mirage', 'Golden Nugget', 'Dunes', 'Circus Circus' and 'Monte Carlo' names, then the plaintiffs' marks will be tarnished."
Additionally, the claimants are concerned that consumers would be confused since both parties use similar names for their casino web sites. Plus, some of Stardust Co.'s sites allegedly are using reproductions of the actual hotel/casino's marquis or a photograph of the business in their site, further misleading consumers.
Stardust Co. reportedly responded to the hotel/casinos' concerns in a letter that suggested they should have acted more quickly to obtain the domain names in dispute. The company's owner, John Dunn, told LV Sun, "Internet domain law favors whoever gets the domain name first. We're more than reasonable. We're willing to give up the domain names for a reasonable price."
"We're not asking for $3 million. We just want to cover the cost of building the four sites, which cost about $3,000 each," he added. "They are trying to rewrite domain and online gaming laws because they want to protect their casino industry."
Wagers placed on the disputed sites were reportedly first funneled through an offshore site owned by Giordano Casinos, then later were linked to Stardust Co. affiliate casinos owned by Ed Servico, an operator from Santa Domingo, the Dominican Republic.
Mirage, Bellagio, et al. v. Stardust Co.
*Note, this copy was scanned from a low-quality fax containing a few lines that were unreadable.