By Alexis Russell

09/23/2008

              As other countries like Italy and Germany make progress in legalizing online poker the U.S. is still holding strong to the idea that poker is a game strictly of chance and therefore doesn’t merit legalization.  This idea is once again being played out in a court of law but this time at the state level in Kentucky.  This is nothing new, however, the Kentucky Governor’s proposal to take control of website domains is.

                This is, to date, one of the most blatant attempts to limit the personal freedom of U.S. citizens in concern with online poker and choke them off from accessing the internet on their own free will.   Freedom of internet use has been one of the key issues in the fight to legalize online poker and this move by Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has just added fuel to the fire. 

                Beshear is proposing the state of Kentucky take control of 141 website domains that promote online poker, including BoDog and FullTilt among others so as to limit Kentuckians access to them.  Of course his reasoning for limiting the internet freedom of his state residents is money.  Beshear has stated that online poker rooms are a drain on the economy that gives nothing back to it and threatens the gambling industry of Kentucky.  However, Kentucky doesn’t currently offer poker, only bingo and horse race gambling which make that a moot point.

                To add to his unjustified claims there’s no evidence yet on if or how much the state is losing because of online poker or how much Kentuckians are playing online.  Although Beshear did make another unsupported statement that Kentuckians are wagering millions in online poker rooms.  Beshear obviously failed to consider that; 1.) if Kentuckians are winning money then that is generating cash they can spend in the local economy and 2.) that there is no justification in saying that they are losing money because without online poker there’s no evidence showing that players would move on to other gambling games that are legal in Kentucky.

                It’s also not surprising that all of this comes after Beshear unsuccessfully tried to get casinos legalized in the state this year.  It looks like he’s still trying to persuade the Kentucky government that casinos are the way to go financially.  I guess he hasn’t considered that not online players prefer live poker games and that most will likely not be close enough to future casinos to take part anyhow.