Kentucky Attorneys Submit Supreme Court Gambling Brief

June 24, 2009 | News Category: Gaming Law

0 Comments

Kentucky attorneys have submitted their response to the Kentucky Supreme Court, to the brief filed by iMEGA (Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association) last month.

The state of Kentucky had ordered the seizure of 141 online gambling Internet domain names, and were taken to court by iMEGA. The Kentucky Court of Appeals made a decision in favor of iMEGA, stating that Internet domain names cannot be considered as gambling devices under the state of Kentucky's law. Kentucky reserves the right to seize gambling devices, however, this law was legislated much before the time that Internet gambling existed.

The brief filed by Kentucky's attorneys was filed on 18th June, when in fact, it was due on the 17th June. When the court asked the attorneys why the brief was filed a day late, they did not have a particularly satisfactory answer. They explained that they had calculated the date the brief was due as 18th June, and that in any case, the work required in filing the brief, which involved 141 domain name holders, was a rather large amount of work to be completed.

One must wonder what the court officials are thinking when dealing with irresponsible lawyers who cannot get a due date for a brief correct, and then blame it on the volume of work involved. It was these same lawyers who wanted to take the case to the Supreme Court as it is!

The state's response discusses two main issues. Firstly, it requests that the court should not look at the exact legislation regarding the seizure of gambling devices, but rather look at the spirit in which the law was intended when it was written, and online gambling was not yet an issue. The second point that is stressed in the brief is that the court look at the precedent set in the state of Washington, where the court ruled that the protection of citizens of the state of Washington should take precedence over inter-state commerce. This verdict was brought down in the case involving Lee Rousso and Internet poker.

The Supreme Court judges will now go through the briefs that have been filed by both iMEGA and by the state of Kentucky in order to decide whether any further judicial review is needed. Should they decide that no further action needs to be taken, the decision of the Kentucky Court of Appeals will be upheld, and the state of Kentucky's appeal will be dismissed. Should the state feel that the case should be further reviewed, a hearing date will be set where both parties can, once again, explain their positions regarding the issues.