Home / Poker News October 2008 / General upheaval following the Kentucky Domain Seizure attempt
General upheaval following the Kentucky Domain Seizure attempt
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2008-10-08 14:27
In case you haven’t yet heard or read about it through other channels, a couple of weeks ago the State of Kentucky, through its governor, Steve Beshear decided to unilaterally seize 141 internet domain names belonging to some of the most popular and well trafficked online gambling operators.
I never knew someone could even attempt something like that and dismissed it at first as a product of the collective imagination of an increasingly paranoid online gambling community, but given the fact that there was an actual court-hearing the other day regarding the issue, on which a whole army of lawyers representing the affected sites was present, I’ll finally have to admit: believe it or not, this one is for real.
Judge Thomas Wingate had a tough day as the seizure attempt ran into stiff opposition on a number of different levels yesterday.
The lawyers present argued several aspects of Gov. Steve Beshear’s move among which the most important were:
- The lack of a clear anti-online gambling law in the state of Kentucky.
- The question of whether or not the State of Kentucky, any other US State or same caliber entity in the world had the right to seize a domain name connected to international commerce, one that may not even have had direct links with the entity itself.
- The possibility that the seizure of the above mentioned domain names could be a blatant violation of free speech as defined by the First Amendment.
- The possibility that the attempt may be a violation of the US Commerce Clause.
To day, the only party concerned in the matter that did not yet voice an opinion is the group of US-based registrars which host many of concerned domain names.
International registrars have already taken up position in the matter, affirming that they will ignore any seizure order of the domain names in question.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission – though not directly represented at the court hearing – has issued a press release in which it decried the fact that Gov. Beshear’s actions were adversely affecting the community’s interests and vowed to defend the rights of the KGC to conduct business through all legal means.
