Can Kentucky Win?

November 18, 2008

With everyone focusing on Obama and McCain, the elections took over the thought process of everyone within hearing distance of a television or radio. All everyone wanted to talk about was the election and who our next President would be. But in all that talk of elections, we lost focus on the online gambling battle that was going on with Kentucky.

The court case that is currently going on is looking to regulate access to online gambling and give them possession of the online gambling site names that they feel are breaking Kentucky law and tempting their citizens. So far, it looks as though the court case is going in Kentucky�s favor, and they may be awarded access to the internet domain names.

The argument remains however as to whether or not a state has the right to reach into the online world and impose their laws on a web site. There are some rules and regulations that are illegal no matter what state you are in as they are government rules, and crimes against humanity. Internet child pornography sites are illegal no matter how you look at it, but online gambling sites are not necessarily so.

Just because one state is not allowing online gambling, it doesn�t mean that all states are not allowing online gambling. It is a state law, not a government one, even though many thought after the passage of the UIGEA that online gambling was illegal even though it wasn�t. Some think that the case is simply about online gambling, but it really has to do with all online commerce.

If we allow Kentucky to seize the online gambling names of these sites, then what is to stop NJ from seizing bestbuy.com because they have made it illegal to sell electronics over the internet? Or California to make electricity payments illegal and thus take every electric company in the country and seize their website?

It is a slippery slope that they are on. One thing is for sure, if you allow them to seize online gambling names, something else will be next.

 

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