Two for Poker, One for Kentucky

January 30, 2009

With the recent news that the Kentucky Court of Appeals had overturned the decision to award the online poker domain names to the state, many online casinos were celebrating the recent win. This is their second win in the battle to gain control between them and the state of Kentucky, but one that they hope they will prevail in the end.

Originally the state had said that the state did not have the right to seize the domain names, and that decision was overturned on appeal. So the poker and online casino groups got together and appealed that appeal, only to have the court rule in their favor this time. The three judges voted two to one that Judge Thomas Wingate had applied the law incorrectly and that the domain names belonged to their owners.

The court also dismissed the idea that the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association and the Interactive Gaming Council had no standing in this case and allowed them in. Once the judges read the law that states the use of gambling devices, they ruled that it had been misapplied in this particular case. They said that had the state included domain names when writing the law it would be illegal but it isn’t.

Because it was reversed they did not discuss whether or not the state has the right to go after those domains as they don’t exist within their state. They also did not discuss whether or not the state was in violation of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.