Microgaming Added to Kentucky’s Latest Lawsuit

October 26, 2010 | News Category: Gaming Law

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The state of Kentucky, or at least the lawyers for the state of Kentucky have been trying very hard to find a way to make one kind of online gambling charge or another stick. Microgaming has now been added to the most recent court case, which is also targeting Party Gaming, and Full Tilt Poker.

The lawsuit, numbered 10-Cl-505, was re-filed after it was amended to include Microgaming. The suit notes that Microgaming is based on the Isle of Man, and then goes on to list what the online gambling company does: "[Microgaming] facilitates, hosts, operates, and profits from more than 120 online casino sites and 40 online poker sites. Microgaming manages and controls the various partnerships." The reason it gives for being able to try this case in Kentucky in the United States is that it has "sufficient minimum contacts with the Commonwealth to establish a personal jurisdiction."

The Kentucky lawyers say that Microgaming allegedly conducted commercial actions on behalf of the sites that they support, and that they shared in the profits from the family of Microgaming sites, asserting that the company offered their wares to players that were located inside of Kentucky's borders. At the end of 2008, Microgaming had left the Kentucky market, and the dates given for the time that "Microgaming received 25% of the gross revenue from its online gambling business in Kentucky" is between September 29th, 2005, and October 23rd, 2008.

The suit is seeking to recover any funds that were lost by the residents of Kentucky in that time period. A specific number has not been stated, with the attorneys leaving it open to be "determined at trial." Apart from that, the Kentucky lawyers are also seeking interest, attorney fees, and essentially any other funds that the "Court deems just and proper."

It is well known that the Kentucky lawyers are working on contingency, which means they will only get paid if they win a case, since they will then earn a percentage of the amount that is awarded to Kentucky. One has to wonder if this is the reason that the attorneys keep on coming up with new angles to find a way to make one lawsuit or another stick. The domain name seizure case is still open at this time.

Microgaming has not offered their products to players in the United States for some time now, however, it seems that they are still at risk of prosecution for the time that they did in fact operate in the US.

Interestingly, Party Gaming's Chief Executive Officer, Jim Ryan, received a summons for this case earlier this month. This is an interesting development, seeing as Party Gaming had previously signed a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice.