News

Monday, 22 June 2009 05:47

In a victory for freedom of choice advocates and common sense, the Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) of Minnesota’s Dept of Public Safety has finally backed down on its unpopular proposal to ban online gambling in the State.

This follows a counter-strike lawsuit that was brought by the iMEGA (Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association) to prevent the State from passing a law that would effectively restrict the freedom of its citizens to surf the Internet.

In April this year AGED set the wheels in motion by serving written notices to a total of eleven telephone and ISPs (Internet service providers) that they should prohibit access to some two hundred online gambling websites, using the Federal telecommunication law of 1961 to enforce them.

In a move to stave off this action, the iMEGA filed litigation early in May against the prohibition, asserting AGED was violating both Federal commerce and also free speech protections. The iMEGA has reached an agreement to drop its court action in exchange for the retraction of the ban proposal.

Chairman for iMEGA, Joe Brennan said of the result that this is a victory for the rights of Internet users. This was a case of a government administration section taking it upon themselves to deem a list of websites a blacklist to be censored. This action could have resulted in residents of Minnesota being prevented from having free access to websites.

The iMEGA were prompted to seek this injunction following the questioning by numerous legal experts whether there could be an application of the Federal law to the Internet within the State of Minnesota.

In a letter sent out to Internet providers, AGED’s John Willems noted that it is unknown if iMEGA would have ultimately prevailed in court. He believes that it would be appropriate to find a resolution to the problem by working towards creating clear, effective policies regarding Internet gambling and its regulation by local government.

A spokesman for the Dept of Public Safety has said that the iMEGA has not folded their hand. The action has raised awareness of consumer protection and broader issues over who exactly should be policing the Internet. These issues are going to have to be faced by other states before very long.