Kentucky Court Orders Seizure of Domain Names

In  2006, the United States enacted the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which Prohibited financial institutions from processing financial transactions between U.S. players and their gambling companies.  Many states, such as Kentucky, also have laws prohibiting online gambling.

In an unusual move, the Franklin Circuit Court of Kentucky is being asked to order the seizure  and forfeiture of 141 domain names of entities involved in online gambling.  Their purpose for seizing the domain names is that the entities are involved in illegal gambling activities in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. 

In accordance with the procedures of ICANN, the legal notices will be electronically served that orders the registrars to transfer the domain names to the plaintiff which is the government of Kentucky.

Included among the 141 gambling entities is software manufacturer Microgaming which is one of the largest online gaming software companies.  Their software powers many online casino sites.  Also included are various online poker rooms like Absolute Poker, Crazy Poker, Poker Stars, and Red Star Poker.  Bingoville, Bingoworkz, Desparate Housewives Bingo and Vics Bingo are among the bingo sites included in the list, although others entities, like Bodgo offer bingo.  The remainder of the list consists of online casino sites, in addition to bookmakers like Bet21 and Bodog. 

Kentucky is the first state to try to block online gambling as its government tries to limit the amount of online gambling activity taking place.  The hearing will be held on Thursday and the outcome will be of interest to everyone in the gambling world.

Posted: September 23, 2008

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