When it was announced earlier on this year that .xxx would become a domain suffix there was excitement amongst the porn barons of the Internet. We already reported this not to be the case earlier this month with many non-porno sites amongst those registering – bad luck for all those thinking .xxx would be yellow pages of porn. As we’ve alluded to in the past the .xxx reaching the mainstream could have an effect on the online gambling industry.
Ever since Calvin Ayre purchased Slots.com for $5.5m last year the whole gaming industry has understood just important generic, more nimble domain names are. There have been various domain name auctions at the gambling industry conferences that are dotted around the world and gambling.com was also put up for auction this year. Suffixes, such as .xxx, are something that is a big issue in the global online gaming industry.
The Black Friday indictments saw a number of domain name seizures and companies with .com domains operating in the US have been forced to change tack and adopt .eu or other domains. .xxx being approved could open up a whole wealth of opportunities though in this sector.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) earlier this summer looked at approving the relaxing of regulations on top level domains. It would mean more additions to the suffix market. As we reported last summer allowing .xxx may pave the way for other suffixes such as .gam and anything that people would like to pay up to $500k for the privilege of. (just as long as none of this ends access to youporn.com or redtube.com for free then it’s all well and good.)
Back to the .xxx domain though and so far the process has seen 1,500 names assigned to porn or adult entertainment sites. It’s the names not being permitted that are of more interest though. Gone are the dreams of porn barons to turn DavidCameron.xxx, MileyCyrus.xxx or MaryKateOlsen.xxx (alright well maybe the last one already is) into porn sites. The ICM Ministry confirmed that 4,000 names in total have been banned. If it helps to generate momentum behind plans for a .gam domain suffix then would could see a number of sites that were booted from their .com domains starting up .gam sites.
