The LasVegasSun.com just covered the new gTLD .Vegas in what is largely a negative story on the new gTLD which is “lagging” behind other City new gTLD’s

The Sun quotes Platinum Web Marketing founder Anthony Carlitto who blasted .Vegas:

“”Platinum Web Marketing founder Anthony Carlitto, believes the .Vegas domain is a bad bet and doesn’t advise his clients to buy a .Vegas domain. Not only are alternative domains unfamiliar to the public, he said, they do nothing to improve a website’s ranking in a Google search.”

“I don’t see any way for it to be valuable,”

“I knew about them coming out a long time ago.”

“I’ll take a .com over a .Vegas, and I’ve been out in Vegas for 36 years.”

The story interviewed city spokesman David Riggleman who acknowledged the city of Las Vegas does not use .Vegas domain names for official sites of the city:

“With issues of identity theft today, it’s very important that people know they are on a legitimate government site,” said. “We don’t use the top-level domain for the official site.”

However, “Las Vegas officials also see the domain as a benefit. It is used for branding initiatives — downtown.vegas, for instance, helps promote the developing downtown area.”

The story went on to interview Tyson MacKay, director of marketing for Dot Vegas, Inc. who was asked why has domain registrations in .Vegas was “lagging” behind other new gTLD city extension including .nyc, .london, .berlin, .paris, .moscow., and .tokyo

“They didn’t understand it or they hadn’t heard of it”.

MacKay went on to say that “Dot Vegas, Inc. plans to launch a six-month television campaign in August to raise awareness about the domain. MacKay said consumers need to encounter the .vegas domain “out in the wild,” hearing it mentioned on the radio or seeing it spelled out on billboards.”

The only positive in the article is “Michael Kruse, a real estate agent at Keller Williams, who said traffic to his site is up about 30% since he bought lvrealestate.vegas to replace his clunkier .com name, lasvegashomesbymike.com.

“I’m happy I got it when I did,” Kruse said. “I think over time it’s really going to catch on.”

Of the 15,000 .vegas websites purchased, about 80 percent of registrants are in the Las Vegas area.

Not all .vegas domain purchasers, though, have motives related to marketing or commerce.

Danny Ballard, who runs Fat Beard LLC, a web development firm, encourages clients to claim .vegas domains to protect their brand names from cybersquatters. And some larger companies have registered .vegas domain names. Google, for example, is the registered owner of google.vegas, and software company Atari Inc. is the owner of atari.vegas.

There also is a speculative element to buying .vegas domains, which start at GoDaddy for $29.99. Some users buy names they believe might go up in value.

“It’s real estate,” said Michael Gallagher, a New Yorker who owns jebbushforpresident.vegas and has purchased website names about politics as a sideline business. “It might be crappy real estate. It might be great real estate.”