That may be their best (only) option, short of giving everyone a new license plate.
It would have cost the state a few hundred dollars over the last 15 years to keep the URL, and probably a few thousand more to keep a minimal active site connected to it (or they could have just redirected it to the main state website). I’m sure that Philippine betting site is going to want a lot more than that to give up free advertising on 800K license plates.
