Kentucky Hearing Held Today: Can a State (Commonwealth) Be a Hypocrite

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gambling911.com did a live blog from the Kentucky courtroom where a hearing was held today on the 141 domains seized by the commonwealth of Kentucky.

After hearing arguments from attorney representing the gambling industry and representing the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the judge advised he would need 7 days before making his ruling.

The most interesting argument from the live blog was that made by Edward  Leyden attorney for iMEGA, Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association, who stated that the forfeiture is unprecedented and clearly unusual. He also brought up TwinSpires.com,  a legal online horse racing site based on the commonwealth of Kentucky and operated by Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby.

Mr. Leyden noted that TwinSpires.com is engaged in online gambling.

So gambling in the state of Kentucky is not a novel concept (as it might be in Utah where all forms of gambling are illegal). ”

This action taken by the commonwealth was not wholly benevolent,” Leyden points out.

Under the Commerce Clause, states are prohibited from engaging in discrimination as a means of eliminating competition.

Protectionism prohibited was the theme and the concept that this whole matter is unconstitutional.

Mr. Leyden makes an excellent argument.

How the state permit an online gambling site which is headquartered in Kentucky, while seizing domains of competitors not located in Kentucky?

The action by Kentucky has many flaws as we discussed a few days ago in our analysis of the ICA brief filed in this case.

Mr. Leyden argument just adds another.

The Judge,  Thomas Wingate also ruled that until he finalizes his decision, the commonwealth must leave the gambling sites “as is”. This means they will stay live.

As we reported previously GoDaddy.com has relinquished certificates for a number of online poker sites including CakePoker.com, UltimateBet.com and DoylesRoom.com to the commonwealth of Kentucky as part of a seizure order brought on by Governor Steve Beshear.

While Godaddy.com stated they did not hand over the domains, we reported a couple of weeks ago that the certificates giving the holder, ownership of the domain, had been given to the Commonwealth and today this was confirmed

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  3. David says

    I guess you meant “hypocrite” and not Hippocrate. Otherwise you might be inadvertently insulting Hippocrates. 😛

  5. John B says

    This “patriotic” goverment does what it wants without limitation.

    I will believe it only when I see it, and I don’t think I will see it. Kentucky need simply state that they can ergo they can.

  9. jeff Schneider says

    It is no surprise to us that Kentucky is trying to pull a socialistic asset grab. We have suffered under the bush administration which has systematically undermined our constitutional rights. After every law that has been passed the bush administration contersigned legislation that gave immunity to the Executive branch , in other words the Republican executive branch in their opinion is above the laws signed into place.

    This is the atmosphere we are currently in. Lawlessness has become a standard. This asset grab by Kentucky is NOT Constitutional. Hopefully they dont get away with it. My fear is everybody has fallen asleep and expects this lawlessness. We need people in office that respect the constitution. Our prediction is this lawless attempt will fail. STAY TUNED.

  10. dncartoons.com says

    Well do not trust that the “right” decision is made as these types of judges struggle to understand even the simplest concepts when it comes to the Internet. I have seen it over and over again.

  11. Stephen Douglas says

    I remember back in the late 80’s or early 90’s when a husband and wife porno business operated through personal BULLETIN BOARDS connected by phone lines to a server, and years before the internet was humming, were arrested and jailed in Tennessee. Why?

    PROBLEM: The couple ran their company from California, and also lived there, but some of their porno members signed up from Tennessee, where porn, at that time, was a devastating plight upon their inbred population. This wasn’t shameful kiddie porn the California couple were offering, just regular old fashioned, “we’ve all seen it before” standard porn. But the California people went to jail for it because it reached Tennessee citizens. Somehow, the federal courts agreed that phone lines reaching across state lines made everyone liable to the particular and peculiar morality laws of each state if they did business in the state, even through the phone.

    That seems to be the same interpretation here regarding the gambling domains locked up by the Kentucky governor, except that in this case, some state “self-interest” seems to be in play in this decision.

    Be very wary of the self righteous governing of that area near the Appalachian mountains – the Cumberland Gap crowd has somehow morphed into an group showing favoritism and unfair judgements, and a “step-over” of other states rights.

    Or, maybe more simply, don’t mess with Kentucky’s own gambling setup with horse racing.

  12. MHB says

    Stephen

    Here is the difference.

    No one is saying the state does not have a right to prosecute the sites that actually conduct business in the state, criminally or civilly.

    However they have no right to seize the domains.

    In the case you cite, They certainly did seize the phone lines that were used or the servers the bulletin board used.

    So the state could have taken action against the actual sites owners, however seizing domains was improper and not one of the allowed methods for enforcing their laws