Golden Palace Streaks into Space

GoldenPalace.com Goes Where Others Fear To Tread

TORONTO, CANADA, AUGUST 5, 2004 - In another first for the online casino industry, the gaming site GoldenPalace.com will boldly go where no casino has ever gone before with the GoldenPalace.com Space Program: Powered by The da Vinci Project ( www.davinciproject.com).

This will be Canada's entry in the Ansari X Prize $10 million competition for the first team to privately finance, build, and launch a spaceship that will carry three people to an altitude of 100 kilometers (62.5 miles), return safely to Earth, and then repeat the launch - within two weeks - with the same ship. The ship itself - the Wild Fire - will sport the casino's brand during its journey to the edge of space and into the history books. The aim of the Ansari X Prize is to promote the space tourism industry through competition among the world's most talented entrepreneurs and rocket experts.

"This is a momentous occasion that will really place GoldenPalace.com on the world stage," said GoldenPalace.com founder and CEO, Richard Rowe, adding that this event will go down in history as one of the significant moments in mankind's race to space. Many years from now, he said, schoolchildren will learn about this event along with the moon landing.

Just as building the city of Las Vegas turned the Nevada desert into a city of lights, GoldenPalace.com hopes to achieve the same thing in the final frontier. GoldenPalace.com pioneered the online casino industry in 1997, so it's fitting that Brian Feeney, the team leader and pilot, should take a laptop along so that his team can play the GoldenPalace.com casino games on their voyage.

"As this technology progresses, we want to set up junkets so players can enjoy our games from high above the Earth," said Rowe. GoldenPalace.com wants to be the first casino not only to visit space, but also to operate in space. Says Rowe: "Then you'll really see some casino action that is out of this world."

The competition itself puts the GoldenPalace.com Space Program: Powered By The da Vinci Project in a classic David and Goliath situation, since their main rival for the prize is billionaire and Microsoft's co-founder Paul Allen's Scaled Composites team. Although their project is on a smaller scale than Allen's multi-million dollar investment, GoldenPalace.com believes that Feeney and his dedicated group of more than 600 specialized volunteers are capable of winning this historic competition. GoldenPalace.com is both excited and extremely proud to be a participant in the evolution of space flight, and believes that people will be talking about this for years to come.

"Brian has an exceptional team working for him, " said Rowe, adding that he has every confidence in the project as well as the successful flight of the Wild Fire. He said that although this is an amazing opportunity from a marketing perspective, it's also a way of giving something back to the hundreds of volunteers who worked so hard, and committed 150,000 hours in order to make this dream a reality. Their innovative thinking, determination, perseverance, has raised the bar in the pursuit of progress. Regardless of which team wins this competition, the benefits to mankind will be considerable as we take another step closer to viable commercial space flight. "We would like to thank Brian and his team, and wish Godspeed to the Wild Fire crew."

According to the rules of the competition, a three-passenger load is required for the flight. GoldenPalace.com, however, plans to have a stowaway on board as well. The casino made headlines recently when it purchased the "Beckham Ball" on eBay from the fan who caught the ball during the Euro 2004 match. The same ball that Becks sent sailing over the net to crush England's hopes of victory will now sail even higher - this time into space.

"This is one of the ball's stops on a world tour to raise money for charity," said Rowe. Promotional events will be set up so that people will be able to participate in penalty shoot-out style competitions using the first football to have been to space and back."

Rowe said that whether it's in casino gaming, marketing, or technology, it's important to always be on the cutting edge. He believes that future generations will liken the GoldenPalace.com Space Program: Powered by The da Vinci Project to the founding of Las Vegas. "This truly is a historical event, and we are proud to help make it happen," said Rowe, and then pondered on the possibility of making history again with the first streaker in space wearing nothing but a GoldenPalace.com tattoo.

The launch of the Wild Fire is scheduled for October 2nd, 2004. The world will be watching.

Contact: Fredric Sebag 1-866-225-6909 info@casinoblasters.com