Kentucky Domain Name Seizure - Update

January 25, 2009 | News Category: Gaming Law

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The Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned the decision of a lower court regarding the seizure of 141 Internet domain names. Two of the three judges from the Court of Appeals ruled that Internet domain names could not be considered to be "gambling devices" and therefore could not be seized by Kentucky's law regarding the seizure of gambling devices.

The State of Kentucky who has chosen to appeal the case to yet another higher court, the state Supreme Court. There has been a fairly large outcry since the state made the decision to go to the Supreme Court, as there are a number of people who believe that that state is spending, and wasting, too much of the taxpayers' money to continue fighting this case. The Executive Director of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) said that the Kentucky residents should, in fact, be outraged that the state is investing more time and money, with already scare resources "in this quixotic case."

The judges who ruled against allowing the State of Kentucky to seize the domain names explained that either the state had to change their laws, and thereby include domain names in their list of gambling devices, or that they could appeal to the Kentucky Supreme Court. The latter suggestion has clearly been taken up by the state. There are fears that should the state not win the Supreme Court verdict in this case, that they will simply attempt to pass a law defining Internet domain names as gambling devices.

This case has been much in the limelight since Kentucky Governor Steve Bashear stated "We must protect our people, especially our children, from this illegal and unregulated activity while also protecting our legal and regulated forms of gaming in Kentucky." It is well-known that politicians will use children to get the emotional response that they need in order to get support from their citizens. It was never clear exactly where children fit into this case. However, the latter part of Bashear's statement seems to be more to the point, that Kentucky would like to protect only the legalized forms of gambling because they get a slice of the action.

Many question why the United States has not regulated online gambling instead of simply trying to ban online casinos. The case in Kentucky seems yet another example of a governing body desiring tax revenues, and pretending that their interests lie with the good of the people. This is made more clear by the fact that the State of Kentucky allows gamblers to bet on horse racing online.

Those that await the verdict regarding the possible seizure of their domain names, along with the thousands of Kentucky residents who gamble in online casinos, will now have to wait a bit longer to know what the final outcome will be.

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