Please gamble responsibly.
by Penny Walker
Online gaming Industry faces many a legal wrangle and here is an interesting case.� In US the online gambling and gaming sites undergo a lot of restrictions, whereby US Bingo lovers and gambling fans are put to hardships.� In line with the rigid posture of the law makers, Kentucky Governor, Steve Beshear, made International news headlines early this year, by ordering the seizure of 141 website domains, in the pretext that they are �illegal gambling devices� prohibited under the Kentucky Law.
Judge Thomas Wingate of the Franklin Circuit Court upheld the seizure and ordered that the residents of Kentucky be prohibited access to these sites, which included among other Casino games and Horse racing sites some Bingo sites as well.� However the forfeiture was put on hold, as a number of appeals were raised against this decision in the Court of Appeals.
A panel of three judges is going through the appeal which was heard on Friday, the 12th�December.� Lawyers representing some domains of online gambling; trade groups like Interactive Gaming Council (IGC); Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA); The Poker Players Alliance etc. vehemently argued that the Kentucky Governors action is blatantly unconstitutional.
They put up the following legal points in support of their arguments:
���� Online Domain names of the sites are not �illegal gambling devices� as per the wording of the law, which clearly states only mechanical objects, will come under this. It is a gross mis-interpretation of the law.
���� Kentucky Governor has no jurisdiction in allowing the State to seize the said domains, as these belong to and registered in other countries outside US, where the activity of gambling is completely legal.� Therefore the State has overstepped its limits.
���� The seizure of online domains can be possible, if only there is a criminal conviction.� In this case, the State has not attempted to criminally prosecute the sites concerned nor were even charges filed against these websites.
���� U.S. Constitution by its commerce clause prohibits Kentucky from regulating activities of interstate and international commerce and therefore the Governor�s orders are blatant violation of the Constitutional rights.
One of the defense lawyers quipped that domain names are just like casino bill boards, and by seizing these �bill boards� the accessibility to these sites can never be prevented.� Internet users can still access these sites by typing their IP address � a unique number allotted to each and every computer or server � while connecting to the Internet.
The Government�s case is under trial before the Appeal Court and the judgment awaited in January 2009 is sure to create a flutter all over the world.