| Kentucky Gambling Web Site Case Heard at Court of Appeal |
| Monday, 15 December 2008 06:22 |
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The Kentucky state’s lawsuit, which is seeking to block access to more than 140 online casinos by Kentuckians brought by Thomas Wingate, Franklin County Circuit Court Judge is now being heard by a three-judge appeals court panel in Kentucky. They are deliberating as to whether any state has the authority to seize any web site’s domain name in order to curtail online gambling activity inside its borders despite this action causing the web site to be cut off from the rest of the world.The case was brought by Kentucky authorities who want to seize over 140 domain names on the premise that the associated web sites are bringing illegal gambling inside the borders of the state. Attorneys acting for a trade association representing some of the gambling web sites have hit back by saying that the state of Kentucky does not have the authority to do that as the domain names are not property. In addition to this, the domain names are offshore based meaning they are outside the jurisdiction of Kentucky. Wingate’s hearing is pending Friday’s appeal hearing outcome. After it was determined that the online casino web sites allowed citizens of Kentucky to illegally gamble online, the state brought a lawsuit against the web sites in question. The lawsuit also requested that users based in Kentucky be blocked or the state confiscate the domain names. Attorneys have estimated that the number of people in Kentucky that use the online casinos is approximately 13,000. It should be noted that Kentucky already allows certain types of gambling to be carried out legally, as in the case of bingo, horse racing and the state lottery. Representing five of the online casinos whose websites are threatened by this action, William Johnson said that Kentucky’s laws don’t actually spell out the fact that the state has the power to seize any domain names. He also said that as lawmakers have not acted since1974 when the law was originally written, the state does not have the authority to shut the sites down or seize their domain names. Kentucky Justice Cabinet representative Eric Lycan labelled online gambling as a global criminal enterprise whose operators and owners, by fostering online gambling, are fully aware of their violation of the laws of most states in the country. He also noted that over 80% of the web sites’ revenue was generated by the US, which gives any state jurisdiction over the websites |