GigaDomains has been under major reconstruction — but we’re getting very close! The site will soon display our portfolio and be easily searchable if you want a keyword domain, short name, or a particular category. Some of our best categories are: brandables including both keyword & invented words, scientific and robot names, and LLLLs. Mike has been doing the programming for the site.
And then he’ll have his work cut out for him on our sister site, GamingDomains.com. We’ve had a long career in selling (and developing) gambling names and actually had successes much earlier here, particularly in poker.
If you too deal with gaming names, you will be keeping an eye on the brick-and-mortar business of live casinos at least occasionally. Happily, they’re on an upswing. In Las Vegas, resort casinos generally had a good year for 2017 — with a qualification. Revenue derived from gaming was up 3% from the year before, but had dropped considerably as a percentage of total income; in other words, practically all growth in income was due to non-gambling sources like dining, attractions and entertainment. And those took a healthy jump.
In Atlantic City, the story is a bit different. Total revenue also was nicely up, with the news outlets saying it represented the first income boost in ten years and that “internet gambling helped.”
Helped? In one casino’s case, it came to nearly half the year’s income. The Golden Nugget Casino has a very healthy online gambling website, open of course only to players within New Jersey. Its earnings were over $8 million, according to www.PlayNJ.com, out of its total gaming profits of $19.45 million. (Figures from the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement.) The other casinos benefited from their online sites too but none to the same extent, and Ballys does not have online gaming under its name (but does have 2 sites making use of its online license: Harrahs and WSOP.com).
Atlantic City this year will be closely watched. Its healthy 2017 had to do with its limited number of casinos. For all of last year, the city had only 5 casinos operating, way down from its original 12. Some say that 12 made for an overstuffed market, driving income downward. This summer, 2 new casinos open (on the same day, in fact: June 28th) boosting the city to 7 casinos. One of the new casinos is Hard Rock Hotel AC, which apparently became a Virgin property after it was announced in January that Richard Branson purchased the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
This may or may not have impact on your gaming names, but it’s worth noting. Most American gambling webmasters do not become affiliates for the big casino company brands, however, due to the many restrictions. Still, there remain so many opportunities for domainers and webmasters connected with these big gaming regions of the U.S. — including travel, hotels, tourism & attractions, business conferences, etc.
