The Kentucky Appeals Hearing – Ruling in 2009
Written by Renee K | Monday, December 15th, 2008
The online gambling industry is a “massive, global, offshore criminal enterprise whose owners know they are violating the laws of nearly every state in the country by fostering gambling via the Internet.”
These were the words of Eric Lycan who was representing the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, Governor Steve Beshear and Kentucky Secretary of State J. Michael Brown in the appellate court in the Kentucky poker domain name seizure case. The statement was made to a three-judge panel of the court, with the who’s who of the online gaming industry present and with the whole world listening. This is the view of a bigoted government elected by the people and not of some puritan military dictator.
And many other such gems issued from the lips of Lycan during the course of the hearing. Challenging the online gaming industry’s argument that the state of Kentucky had no legal authority to seize domains registered outside the state Lycan replied that Kentucky law has supremacy over the international Nature of the Internet simply because the domains could be accessed from Kentucky. Lycan added that over 80 percent of the revenue of the online gambling sites came from the United States and this fact alone was enough to give each and every state jurisdiction over the sites. So far the online gambling sites have carried on merrily because no one has confronted them.
The judges grilled Lycan on the issue of interpreting the domain names as gambling devices. Judge Keller, in particular, said by the same argument could the buses ferrying gamblers across the river to the Horseshoe Southern Indiana casino be termed gambling devices and seized by the state. Without batting an eyelid Lycan averred that the state had a right to seize the buses if it wanted to. Judge Keller also wanted to know that if the state thought that Internet gambling was illegal then why did it specifically exempt the players from the legislation. “It’s illegal to sell the drugs and it is also illegal to use the drugs. I don’t see much of a difference here,” the judge queried. To this Lycan replied that it was the legislators’ prerogative to frame the law.
The appeal had been filed by iMEGA on behalf of several of the domain names in question. It prayed that the appellate court overturn the provisional ruling of the lower court. The final hearing of the lower court has been deferred till the appellate court gives its decision. The online gaming industry lawyers were far more circumspect than Lycan in placing their arguments. Their main line of attack was that there were no proper processes conducted by the lower court. Attorney Jon L. Fleischaker, who headed the iMEGA team, said that the state of Kentucky was applying a criminal penalty to a civil suit. He said, “If they want to bring a criminal case, they should bring a criminal case.”
A ruling from the appellate panel consisting of judges Michelle Keller, Michael Caperton and Jeff Taylor is expected only in 2009.
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· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
