World's Standard of Online Poker (WSOP.com)

Federico Schiavio is truly amazed at Harrah's statements, made under oath before the California court in Harrah's recent motion to dismiss the California lawsuit with his company WSOP.com. You be the judge:

1. "Harrah's does not conduct any business within the State of California". What do you call a large billboard in southern California that advertises for Harrah's hotel casino in southern California? See www.WSOP.com for the picture...

Harrah's has 16 buses with daily service all across southern California to Harrah's Rincon in north San Diego County, seven days a week. Harrah's Entertainment also provides directions on its website to its Rincon hotel casino and to many of its Las Vegas hotels from the Los Angeles area, but of course that is not soliciting business from southern California or residents of Los Angeles.

Harrah's touts that it has "40 million customers, 85,000 employees and 1 Wide-Open Planet". Harrah's will fly anyone to its casinos on chartered flights, with many originating in California. Harrah's uses direct mail marketing to solicit business from customers in California from Harrah's list of 4 to 6 million members in its Total Rewards program: (see the Snowney case for the California Supreme Court's view on Harrah's extensive contacts with California). Available at www.WSOP.com.

Harrah's also has a marketing partnership with a Los Angeles area bus company, US Asia, offering bus service between Los Angeles and Harrah's hotels in Las Vegas (the Rio, home to the World Series of Poker, and Harrah's Las Vegas) for $25 round trip. Harrah's specifically targets gamblers in Los Angeles County when they type "gambling" as a search term in Google.com, yielding a sponsored link to the Harrah's Rincon Resort, but only for patrons in the greater Los Angeles area. More on their supposed claims at my website www.WSOP.com.

2. Harrah's declares that it "does not own, lease, or use any real property in California, [or] have an office or place of business in California." Then what do you call prime real estate in Beverly Hills which Harrah's owns through its acquisition of Caesars Entertainment?

I dropped by this reservations office, and check out what they gave me at www.WSOP.com, from the Vice President of Harrah's Entertainment, Beverly Hills Office. Could this be the branch office advertised by Harrah's? Perhaps, or it could be their "marketing services" corporation in Los Angeles. This last exhibit includes Harrah's Marketing Services Corporation's qualification to do business in California, which lists the Tennessee address for Harrah's Entertainment. Mr. Tom Jenkin is listed as the President of this company. What a small world, Mr. Jenkin is also listed in a Harrah's Entertainment publication entitled "2005 Annual Report" as "President, Harrah's Western Division". Harrah's also has a yellow pages listing in Los Angeles for its marketing division see it all at www.WSOP.com

3. Harrah's does not have "any employees in California." Then why does it advertise 53 job openings in California, including its opening for its Branch Office Coordinator in Los Angeles, also called its Las Vegas Corporate Office, Los Angeles, CA? This is a very strange statement from a company that has at least two offices in the Los Angeles area and lists a Vice President at its Beverly Hills office. The hearing on Harrah's motion to dismiss is scheduled for January 29 in Los Angeles, so please come back for an update to see what transpired at the hearing.

For more information, contact Federico Schiavio at fxs@wsop.com, or go to his website at www.WSOP.com!

January 22, 2007
Posted By Larry Rutherford
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com    Previous Page | Internet Gambling | Top Online Casinos | Submit News!