While Harrah's Claims They Have No Business in California, Schiavio Alleges They Tell Tall Tales

(PRWeb) January 24, 2007 -- In response to Federico Schiavio's lawsuit against Harrah's Entertainment over his WSOP.com domain name for the World's Standard of Online Poker (Case No. 06-5037 DSF (JCx)), Harrah's has filed a motion to dismiss the Los Angeles lawsuit, claiming that Harrah's "does not conduct any business within the State of California", it "does not own, lease, or use any real property in California", and it does not have an office or place of business in California. According to Harrah's, it does not have any employees in California and it would be unreasonable for Harrah's to litigate over the WSOP.com domain name in California. Harrah's also requested that the lawsuit be transferred to Nevada "for the convenience of parties and witnesses." One need not wonder very long who the transfer would be more convenient for. Harrah's motion itself, along with Harrah's declaration, may be viewed at www.WSOP.com. In response to Harrah's motion to dismiss, Schiavio filed a comprehensive opposition brief, providing a wealth of information for the court. For instance, shown at www.WSOP.com is a large billboard in southern California that advertises for Harrah's hotel casino in southern California.

Schiavio's opposition asserts that 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. The opposition provides exhibits of Harrah's where Harrah's claims it has 40 million customers, 85,000 employees and "1 Wide-Open Planet". The opposition also provides evidence that Harrah's will fly anyone to its casinos on chartered flights, with many originating in California, and that 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. Further documents provided in the opposition claim 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. In response to Harrah's claim that it did not own, lease or use any real property in California, Schiavio presented evidence of prime real estate in Beverly Hills which Harrah's owns through its acquisition of Caesars Entertainment, shown at www.WSOP.com.

Schiavio's opposition brief may be viewed at www.WSOP.com, along with Schiavio's declaration and the declaration of his attorney. The exhibits supporting Schiavio's opposition are over 300 MB, so if you you would like to see these in more detail, please e-mail fxs(at)wsop.com.

In Harrah's reply, it freely admitted its attempts to "lure California citizens to cross the border", but claimed that all of Harrah's efforts to attract casino patronage from California were attributable to the advertising and actions of other Harrah's entities which were not before the California court. Harrah's claimed that it did not "enter California" to conduct any advertising for its casinos and hotels. Instead, Harrah's claimed that the Harrah's defendants "employ print and Internet ads to elicit residents to travel to Nevada," but that does not amount to doing business in California. Harrah's also claimed that any physical presence in California was by entities not named in the lawsuit, such as Harrah's Marketing Services Corporation and Caesars World Marketing Corporation. According to Harrah's, all the offices and job listings in California by "third parties" are not attributable to Harrah's, "even if the other corporate entities are related".
The hearing on Harrah's motion to dismiss is scheduled for January 29 in Los Angeles, so more information will be made available online at www.WSOP.com following the hearing.

###