LOS ANGELES, Oct 12: The Sin City has hit a jackpot! Prince Harry’s naked pictures gave Las Vegas a whopping USD 23 million worth of free publicity, as the images were seen by 154 million people.
The 28-year-old royal caused controversy when nude photographs of him playing strip billiards with a bevy of beauties were published on-line in August.
Though Harry is yet to recover his dignity from images of his now-infamous game of “strip billiards”, the city’s tourism board has estimated the scandal’s publicity value for Las Vegas at USD 23 million.
According to a new report issued by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), the incident has given the city a major tourism boost as the images were seen by an estimated 154 million people.
“God bless Prince Harry. He made us a bunch of money,” TMZ.Com quoted LVCVA Board Chairman Tom Collins as saying a recent board meeting.
The city rolled the dice on a tourism campaign pegged to the TMZ’s posting of cell phone pictures of Prince Harry ‘cavorting’ with women in the buff in his USD 8,000-a-night suite at the Wynn and Encore hotel.
The agency is reportedly unsure of exactly how much the scandal boosted profits, but officials said that there is no doubt that the scandal had a positive effect on their economy. (PTI)