Does Kentucky Have the Ability to Kill Online Gambling?

October 30, 2008

The short answer, yes – they just did. However, the long answer may be not quite. With the online gambling industry fighting to be legal on many fronts, the latest ruling in the Kentucky case has many wondering what is going on. The Governor of Kentucky has asked a judge to give the state the domain names of many popular online gambling sites like Bodog, Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet, PokerStars, Cake Poker, Full Tilt Poker, and Doyle’s Room.

At first no one thought anyone else would listen, however, they did, and they are winning. Governor Steve Beshear is trying to seize 141 of the world’s largest online gambling domain names as he says that he is trying to protect his residents and their children from the dangers of online gambling.

However, if this is truly the case, then why is he still allowing online gambling in the state on those sites that represent the lottery or horse racing? Could it be that these are only Kentucky businesses? It would seem that instead of protecting his residents, he is protecting his in state gambling avenues.

This simply has created a monopoly within the state, not protected anyone from anything. The judge in the case ruled for Beshear saying that the online gambling sites were not above the law, which makes no sense at all. iMEGA has decided to file a petition asking the Kentucky Court of Appeals to step in as they don’t want to wait for the next hearing to discuss the actual forfeiture.

If they are successful in taking the online gambling names, no business anywhere will be safe from the clutches of Kentucky.





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