Still Online Casino Drama
The Kentucky online casino gambling situation just never seems to find an
adequate solution – even though the case has now gone to the Kentucky Appeals
Court, the governor and the state lawyers are blindly supporting the previous
attempts to seize more than 140 internet gambling related domain names. The
online casinos and the domain name registrars were the main opponents to the
seizure attempt when the case first made headlines – many internet freedom
activists and representatives from the industry really doubted that the Kentucky
courts would find any legality in the seizure attempts. The case really made
headlines when the first court modified the seizure request slightly but
essentially agreed with Governor Steve Beshear and his efforts to seize the
online gambling domain names on the notion that the domain names are an illegal
gambling device.
Although some of the online casinos that are involved in the case have actually
complied with Governor Beshear’s ridiculous requests, others have the support of
industry organizations like iMEGA to put some funds and efforts behind the legal
action. The Appeals Court ruled that the domain name seizure was unfounded and
not supported by Kentucky state law. That ruling though has not put a rest to
the issue unfortunately. Now that this case, which many thought would end in a
dismissal by the courts, has progressed so far through the legal system with
questionable rulings the whole way, the freedom of speech advocates and other
watchdog groups are getting involved.
Internationally, the issue of internet censorship and how regional and national
legislation is becoming a heated issue. The Kentucky State governor is
attempting to pass through a seizure judgment that would really have a pretty
negative affect on precedence setting for future cases that may not even involve
the online casino gambling industry, but perhaps international businesses and
e-commerce. |