Kentucky Judge Allows
Online Gambling Lawsuit
 October
17 - To the disappointment of the online gambling
industry, a Franklin County Circuit Court judge refused to
dismiss a ridiculous lawsuit that is centered around the
possibility of awarding the state of Kentucky the right to
prevent its citizens from accessing over 140 online casinos.
Yesterday (Thursday, October 16th), Judge Thomas Wingate ruled
that he will hear opposing arguments on November 17th before
deciding whether to give Kentucky's state government control of
141 online gambling-related domain names, most of which are
owned and hosted offshore.
Said Wingate, 'While the respective groups and lawyers are
arguing that judicial interference of the Internet will create
havoc, this argument does not ruffle the court. The Internet,
with all of its advantages to modern day life, is still not
above the law, whether on an international or municipal level.'
The decision to allow the lawsuit to proceed has come as a big
blow to the online gambling community because if a
Kentucky court rules that the online gambling sites in question
are illegally attracting gambling in the state, the domains can
under American law can be blocked as well as seized.
There is also a fear that other states could follow suit which
could have enormous ramifications for online gambling as well as
many other industries that have a strong Internet presence.
The debacle started with Kentucky's governor, Steve Beshear, who
during his campaign for governor last year supported a
constitutional amendment to legalize casino gambling. Earlier
this year he tried and failed to convince the General Assembly
to put a proposed amendment before voters.
'Up until now no one has been willing to step up and address
illegal online gambling. I feel that we must protect our people,
particularly our children, from this illegal and unregulated
activity while also protecting our legal and regulated forms of
gambling (horseracing, lotteries) in Kentucky,' he said.
|
|
|
