Sense for the Kentucky Situation?
The online casino gambling industry is waiting on pins and needles this week in
anticipation of tomorrow’s appeals hearing in the Kentucky online casino domain
name issue. This case has sparked international criticism largely because of the
fact that the first judge approved the domain name confiscation in the first
place despite calls from the international internet gambling industry about
jurisdictions and outcries from advocates of Net Neutrality agreements. At the
public outcry, and because of strong action taken by the Interactive Media
Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) in regards to an appeal, three
Judges for the Kentucky Court of Appeals are reviewing the previous judge’s
decision.
There are few in the case who really believed that the first judge in the case,
Judge Wingate, would actually side with the State government and approve the
seizure of 141 domain names belonging to online casinos, information portals,
and similar sites. Allowing the confiscation of internationally registered
domain names and allowing such policing of the Internet could have some very
serious global consequences should individual countries take it upon themselves
to seize specific foreign domain names – it would hamper an entire foundational
element of the World Wide Web.
The three judges in the case have reviewed all of the previous information
provided for the case, as well as additional amicus briefings and statements
from a handful of companies pertinent to the case. There is no telling how this
appeal process will turn out at this point, but if the appeals court does uphold
the previous ruling there are some online casino gambling sites that will be in
a world of trouble if the Kentucky government chooses to fine those sites that
operated in the Kentucky gaming market. |