Gold Strike Poker Strikes Out
One of America's legal online poker rooms may be facing legal problems of a different kind.
Gold Strike Poker (www.goldstrikepoker.net), which opened last year and which operates out of Blaine, Washington, USA, is a legal online poker room because it operates under the so-called "subscription" business model--players pay a $20 monthly membership fee to join the room and then can play in free poker tournaments that offer cash prizes.
Because no money is ever risked by players, the scheme is not considered gambling, so Gold Strike Poker has not been bothered.
By the authorities, that is.
It may be a different story with a competitor, however.
There's a land-based casino in Tunica, Mississippi, USA, called the Gold Strike Casino, and it had the name "Gold Strike" first.
So don't surprised if before too long, the Mississippi casino sues the online poker room for trademark infringement.
And if it does, it likely will win.
There's plenty of ample precedent that says so.
When the Internet first became popular about 15 years ago, a plethora of online casinos and sportsbooks sprung up on the Net.
In order to establish identities for themselves, many of those casinos and books took names that were identical or similar to established land-based casinos in Las Vegas and elsewhere.
And, the thinking went, if consumers were confused into thinking that there was some kind of affiliation between the legitimate land-based casinos and their bogus online namesakes, so much the better.
But eventually the scam caught up to the scamsters.
The Vegas casinos and others fought back.
In court.
And won.
The first big court case was about a dozen years ago, when the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas sued the Costa Rica-based Internet casino Rio Online Casino for trademark infringement, won the case and shut it down.
Shortly thereafter, the parent company of Las Vegas casino Circus Circus sued a German online casino called Circus Casino and won and shut it down.
Also equally successful at the time were the owners of the Aladdin Casino in Vegas, who successfully sued and shut down a British online casino also called Aladdin Casino.
Since then, online casinos and online sportsbooks with rip-off names such as Gold Nugget Online Casino, Casares, Mint Casino, Las Vegas Club Sportsbook, Grand Online Casino, Mystic Dunes Casino, Grand Riviera Online Casino, Dunes Sports, Parisian Casino, Trump Card Online Casino, Bellagio Casino, Sands of the Caribbean, Flamingo Club Online Casino, Taj Mahal Online Casino and Casino Monte Carlo have all come and gone.
Some had to be sued to be shut down, while others shut down before they were sued.
It's only a matter of time for the Gold Strike Poker online poker room.
The only reason it hasn't been sued yet is likely because the Gold Strike Casino in Tunica doesn't know about it.
But eventually it will, as the online room recently started a massive ad campaign on TV and in magazines to promote awareness of its brand.
Unfortunatley what it's promoting is also its doom.
By Tom Somach
Gambling911.com Staff Writer
