Harrah's "Lock" on WSOP Satellites?

yaw4god_emt · #1 04-13-2005, 11:05 PM

The other night, I was talking to the Poker Manager at one of the casinos I frequent. Last year, they offered a Double Shootout tournament with the winner getting the $10k WSOP Main Event buy-in as well as a trip to Vegas for the week. He stated that they couldn't do one this year because Harrah's locked out any casino within 250 miles of one of their casinos to having any WSOP promotion.

Is this true? If so, why did Harrah's do this? I asked the Manager if they could still have the tournament but not advertise it as a WSOP tournament. Give the winner $10k in cash plus a trip to Vegas that (coincidentally) is booked the week of the Main Event. He said that sounds like a "legal" (if the lock is even legal to do) way of getting around it and would talk to Management.

niin · #2 04-13-2005, 11:17 PM

Pechanga runs a monthly satellite that has a first prize of a WSOP seat. They are well within 250 miles of Harrah's Rincon.. I haven't heard any problems with them running those satellites.

renodoc · #3 04-14-2005, 01:29 AM

seems not true to me

JoshuaMayes · #4 04-14-2005, 09:30 AM

If this is true, it is because "The World Series of Poker" is a trademark now owned by Harrah's. Just as an independent restauranteur cannot open a hamburger joint named "Burger King," another casino cannot use Harrah's trademark to drum up business. The WSOP brand was one of the primary assets that Harrah's sought when it purchased Binion's. It is only natural that they would want to capitalize on it by monopolizing the market for WSOP sattellites.

yaw4god_emt · #5 04-14-2005, 11:15 AM

[ QUOTE ]
If this is true, it is because "The World Series of Poker" is a trademark now owned by Harrah's. Just as an independent restauranteur cannot open a hamburger joint named "Burger King," another casino cannot use Harrah's trademark to drum up business. The WSOP brand was one of the primary assets that Harrah's sought when it purchased Binion's. It is only natural that they would want to capitalize on it by monopolizing the market for WSOP sattellites.

[/ QUOTE ]

While this makes sense, Burger King wouldn't make any money if another company opened another restaurant named "Burger King". However, Harrah's only stands to MAKE money by promoting WSOP in as many casinos as possible.

GixxerJoe · #6 04-14-2005, 12:46 PM

Not true. Casino Arizona will be running WSOP supers over the next 2 months, and Harrahs AK-Chin Casino is about 30 minutes away.

JoshuaMayes · #7 04-15-2005, 08:45 AM

[ QUOTE ]
While this makes sense, Burger King wouldn't make any money if another company opened another restaurant named "Burger King". However, Harrah's only stands to MAKE money by promoting WSOP in as many casinos as possible.

[/ QUOTE ]

True, Harrah's will make more money the more entrants there are to the WSOP. But, perhaps they will make even more money by forcing players who want to play in live satellites to do so at one of Harrah's properties. If so, they collect (1) the sattelite fees; (2) the main event fees; and (3) whatever the players drop while in their casinos at other games, for food etc. It may be worth it for Harrah's to have more satellite business at the expense of less main event business.