LAS VEGAS (AP) — A casino owner-turned-commercial developeris asking $7.85 million to sell a Las
Vegas home, and he’s willing toaccept the online currency bitcoin for the deal.Jack Sommer saidhe got the
idea to seek bitcoin for his 25,000-square-foot mansion fromtwo of his sons, who’ve been involved in making
and trading thecurrency."The advantage is that we’re expanding our market and adding some
notoriety," Sommer said.Bitcoinpeer-to-peer trading began in 2009. Value is purchased through
anexchange website with a mainstream paper currency, such as dollars oreuros, though trading isn’t
government-regulated.Using thecurrency can streamline international business deals, said Julian Tosh,
aconsultant and owner of the marketplace website bitcoinsinvegas.com."Thereare a bunch of people who
have bitcoins, and they’re dying for a placeto spend it," Tosh told the Las Vegas Review-Journal (http://bit.ly/1b2VrHk ).He said Sommer’s willingness to
accept bitcoin could open the home to a global audience."If you increase awareness of potential buyers,
you could tap into new markets," Tosh said.Sommerhas put a lot of work into the home in the posh
Spanish Trail CountryClub. It features marble from China, Iceland and Brazil, a fullbasement, staff quarters
with Jacuzzis, and a secret garden. It also has39 air conditioning zones fed from a 120-ton cooling
tower.Libraryshelves are stainless steel clad in American cherry wood, and the viewfrom the owner’s suite is
of golf course fairways.Sommer once owned the Aladdin resort, which is now the Planet Hollywood Resort on
the Las Vegas Strip.Hesaid he and his wife, Laura, considered the additions they’ve made tothe home "an
exercise in how many cool details we could put in." He saidthey were downsizing now that their seven
children have grown and movedout.Sommer’s sales agent, Craig Tann, of Prudential AmericanGroup’s Estates of
Las Vegas team, said the home may be the first insouthern Nevada to be marketed formally around bitcoin.A
range ofbusinesses accept the currency. A California Lamborghini dealershipsold a $103,000 Tesla to a
Florida man for 91.4 bitcoin, theReview-Journal reported, and a Canadian man listed his Alberta home forthe
bitcoin equivalent of $405,000.The currency hit a watermarkwhen Bank of America Merrill Lynch said this
month that one bitcoincould have a maximum value of $1,300, or more than the price of an ounceof gold.A
bitcoin on Friday was valued at about $870, up from $10 in January.Tosh acknowledged the volatility in value
could make a $7.85 million bitcoin trade risky."Lockingin a price for such a large transaction is going
to be kind ofdifficult," he said. "If the value is changing 30 percent a day, how doyou quantify
that in a contract and expect each side to hold on for 30to 90 days while escrow clears?"___Information
from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.comCopyright 2013 The Associated Press.
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