News
Kentucky To Sue Full Tilt Poker
Monday, 19 April 2010 02:43
Just when you thought it was safe to get back to normality, Kentucky's online gambling hating governor is going all in for Full Tilt Poker.Steve Beshear, Governor of the State of Kentucky has been highly active with his vigorously publicised legal attacks on the online gambling industry. It all began with his infamous attempt to confiscate 141 online gambling related domains, despite those domains being owned by entities that are based not only outside his state but many of them are even outside of the United States. That case is still pending a definitive conclusion.
Now he has taken his war against online gambling to the next level by launching a lawsuit directed against Full Tilt Poker, which is a US based poker website. The suit demands a return of the alleged losses incurred by residents of the state over the last five years.
Hand picked by Beshear himself, J. Michael Brown, Kentucky's secretary for justice, has issued the lawsuit against the so far unidentified owners of one hundred domain names that provide online gambling services within the United States market. What is exceptional about this particular case is that for the very first time, it names the owner of one of those domains as Pocket Kings, a company based in Dublin, Ireland. Pocket Kings are believed to be one of the co-owners of the Full Tilt Poker website. It seems attorneys confirmed their identity during the course of preparing the litigation.
Full Tilt Poker may additionally be facing an investigation by the federal grand jury, which means those holding a sharing interest such as Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey may be looking at the possibility of arrest, conviction and even jail time.
Justification by the state for this latest lawsuit by Kentucky against the owners of Full Tilt Poker was given by saying that Kentucky is fully entitled to sue to recover three times the value of monies lost by people residing in Kentucky between 25th March 2005 and 25th September 2009. This is a five year period that precedes the Complaint excluding the most recent six months. The owners of the other domains will now have to wait and see how this case progresses.
