News The online casino that already owns the "sacred sandwich" will pay $65,100 for another wacky Web find: the "ghost cane." 08 Dec 2004
GoldenPalace.com, an Internet gambling firm, said it won an eBay auction for a metal walking cane that an Indiana woman put up for sale in an effort to ease her son's fears about his dead grandfather.
Recently, the casino forked over $28,000 for a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich said to bear the likeness of the Virgin Mary.
GoldenPalace said the cane will join the sandwich on a world tour.
Mary Anderson made it clear that the cane was a ploy to ease her six-year-old son Collin's fears that his grandfather's ghost would come back to haunt him.
As a condition of the sale, Anderson said the buyer would have to write a letter to the boy acknowledging receipt of the cane — and with it — the ghost.
The cane reportedly attracted 132 bids and landed the Anderson family on NBC's "Today" show.
Antigua-based GoldenPalace has a history of coming up with unusual stunts and funny bits of Americana in a bid to grab headlines.
"We're not even that smart," said spokesman Jeff Barown. "We'll be sitting around watching TV, and CNN will do a story on a ghost. We'll think, that's a great opportunity."
He admits, "We've done some things that don't work either."
During the Olympic games, a streaker dressed in a tutu and clown shoes with "GoldenPalace.com" tattooed on his chest climbed onto the springboard and dove into the pool while a men's diving event was in progress. Olympics officials weren't happy.
Earlier, the casino persuaded boxers Leonard Dorin and Bernard Hopkins to sport temporary tattoos of its logo during high-profile bouts.
