Minnesota Says Uncle

June 10, 2009

Minnesota has dropped its bid to block online gambling within the state. State officials informed their Internet Service Providers that they were rescinding the order to block all online gambling, and many say that it is a good thing for the state. Online gambling patrons within the state say that this is a victory for online gambling everywhere.

The state says that they may have dropped their request for online gambling blocking, but that they are not done in their attempts to regulate the games that go on in their state. They say that the ultimate goal is to block online gambling but they are aware that they need to come at it from another angle.

The group iMEGA had filed suit against the state in response to the proposed online gambling ban, but withdrew their suit when the government withdrew their orders. The ISPs had not implemented the ban yet as they said that their attorneys had advised them to ignore the request. They said that it was not their job, nor their place to block that access to the online gambling sites.

John Willems of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division wrote that there is no way of knowing whether or not the ISPs would have prevailed in court, but that it didn�t really matter. Willems said that it was more important to try and find a way of regulating online gambling and creating a safer environment for their players. Experts say that this is a nice way of trying to save face, but that they have no doubt that the iMEGA group would have prevailed had it come to court.









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