Kentucky Maintains Position on Gambling Domains

Officials from the state of Kentucky were not swayed by the recent decision of the Court of Appeals to prevent them from seizing 141 gambling related domains such as Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars. This case gained national attention last year when Kentucky Governor Beshear made it clear of his intention to take control of these “illegal” domains if they didn’t voluntarily block Kentucky residents from accessing their sites.

While some sites complied, the majority of them did not and some event sent legal representation to the court to place their arguments. The case has been back and forth but the most recent judgment in favor of the gambling operators was considered a win for the online gambling world.

One of the organizations fighting on behalf of online poker players everywhere is iMEGA. Joe Brennan, the Chairman of iMEGA had this to say when he was informed of the decision by Kentucky officials to appeal - "We’re not surprised that Gov. Beshear and Secretary (J. Michael) Brown filed their appeal.  They both invested a lot of political capital in this suit. They likely feel they can’t back down.”

The irony here is that the state funded Lottery and Horse racing does allow online gaming transactions. According to Governor Beshears only online casinos, sportsbooks, and poker are illegal. It’s important to note that no revenue from these sites filters down to the state as they’re not regulated. Could this be one of the primary drivers behind the states motion? You do the math.