News

Tuesday, 16 November 2010 09:18

Online gambling giants Party Gaming are spoiling for a fight and they have the schoolyard bully, the Commonwealth of Kentucky firmly in their sights.

In a move that, if successful, will pave the way for the 140 or so online gambling website domain owners to force the State of Kentucky to back off from trying to seize their domains, Party Gaming are taking on the Governor and his lawmakers in their own courts. The online gambling company seem to have a very strong case to force the State to withdraw their claim that the domains in question can be seized for actively promoting illegal gambling in the state and their attempts to force the owners to repay all monies that residents have allegedly lost while playing on these sites.

There are three main charges that Party Gaming are contesting with a motion to dismiss the complaint made by the State. These are:

1. The Commonwealth of Kentucky lawmakers involved in the case failed to follow the correct procedures with regard to the issue of legal documents on a company based abroad, as in the case of the Gibraltar regulated company, according to the Hague Convention.

2. The Secretary of Justice for Kentucky did not have the legal authority needed to bring those charges or the lawsuit. In fact this can only occur when any lawsuit or charges are initiated by The Attorney General. In this case there has so far not been any participation by The Attorney General.

3. The Commonwealth of Kentucky has been unable to state any claim since to date there has been no single identity disclosed of a “loser”. There is no information stating the identity of a person or qualifier allegedly incurring neither any loss nor the date upon which that loss was allegedly incurred.

These three points appear to present a decisive blow for Governor Steven Beshear's attempts to legally impound the offending domains. Their appearance now begs the question as to why it has taken so long for any one company to come forward with these legal arguments which would have likely quashed the attempt by the State at the outset had they been put forward back then.

The motion put forward by Party Gaming is set to be heard at Franklin Circuit Court in a special hearing on a date that is yet to be set.