By Alexis Russell

10/22/2008

            We’ve been keeping you all posted with the happenings in Kentucky where the Governor Steve Beshear is going head’s with the online poker room domains.  After multiple hearings, going back and forth on the issue of whether or not the state of Kentucky could legally seize 141 domains, the judge has finally reached a decision.

            Though the Poker Players Alliance did what they could to fight Beshear and the Commmonwealth of Kentucky, Judge Thomas Wingate ruled in favor of the state.  The ruling means more to just online poker based on Wingate’s written statement which concluded, "The Internet, with all its benefits and advantages to modern-day commerce and life, is still not above the law, whether on an international or municipal level."

            In previous coverage of this story we’ve pointed out the fact that Kentucky’s seizing of the domains and thereby making the sites completely unavailable to Kentuckians is taking away internet freedom.  That in and of itself should make every US citizen sit up and take notice.  But the based on Wingate’s statement website should be adhering to the laws on an international as well as a very localized level.

            The suggestion that every website should be adhering to every law basically in the world that pertains to its subject matter is both ludicrous and unsettling.  This open the door wide open of any website to be held accountable for anything anywhere.  The state’s argument against online poker makes the ruling even more illogical.

            Beshear’s argument was not necessarily that online gambling is currently considered illegal, but that the online poker industry was taking away from the state revenue from the lottery and horse races.  For the Kentucky government it was more of a monetary issue rather than one of legality or even morality.  It’s possible that Wingate realized nothing supported Beshear’s argument and law was the only thing that could be used as a reason for allowing the state to block Kentuckians from accessing the 141 poker domains.

            It should be no surprise to those following this story that this whole issue has come up as Beshear has been pushing for the state to open up a few casinos.  Then he would have a possible argument at online poker taking from the state revenue and competing with his pet project.