The debacle in Kentucky continues this week as Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate declared he would give his final verdict in the case, where the state is attempting to seize 141 domain names believed to be in connection with illegal online poker and gambling, on October 15th. Premature to this decision, however, GoDaddy.com took it upon themselves to cough up four of the domain names in question, including DoylesRoom.com.
Late Monday night, before Tuesday’s hearing, the online domain registrar handed over the certificates of four online gambling domains which had been registered through GoDaddy.com. The domains were that of DoylesRoom.com, SlotsofFortune.com, BingoWorkz.com and USABingo.com.
Judge Wingate ordered that all seized domains should remain unaffected, therefore continuing operations as usual, until his final ruling on October 15th. Head over to any of the four domain names GoDaddy so willingly relinquished to the courts and you’ll find that nothing seems out of place – not yet anyways.
The defense attorneys argued at great length that the order to seize 141 domain names violated a number of provisions in the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. They also argued that domain names cannot be defined as “gambling devicesâ€Â, and that online poker is a “game of skillâ€Â, legal in Kentucky, therefore should not be connected with other illegal online gambling operations.
Edward Leyden, President of Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming (iMEGA), made an interesting point as to how Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear can claim online gambling to be illegal in the state while the home of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs, operates an online horse race betting site, TwinSpires.com, which is licensed in Oregon. Leyden posed the question that if Kentucky is so intolerant of online gambling, why should this site be permitted?
The TwinSpires web site responded by comparing horse racing with poker, “Just like poker, you are not playing against the house. You are playing against the rest of the people wagering on racing; the better your strategy, the more you can win.â€Â
So it would appear that, in an attempt to remove their own hide from the block, TwinSpires has actually positioned itself in support of the defense; or at least those dealing in online poker rather than casino gambling.
Leyden continued his calculated attack by indicating that if the TwinSpires gambling site alone should be permitted to operate in Kentucky, serving only the interest of the state, such operations are prohibited by the US Constitution. Under the Commerce Clause, no state is permitted to engage in discrimination to eliminate competition. Therefore, with the seizure motivated by protectionism, it must be deemed unconstitutional.
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