The judge overseeing the nearly four-year-old civil suit brought by the Commonwealth of Kentucky against online gambling firms allegedly conducting illegal gambling activities in the state has issued an order of forfeiture, transferring 132 online gambling domains to state control. The case was originally filed against 141 domains in August 2008 after Kentucky law enforcement officials determined that the sites in question were not attempting to block Kentucky residents from gambling. The state claimed these sites’ domains constituted “illegal gambling devices” and were therefore subject to forfeiture under Kentucky anti-gambling statutes.
The litigation has been the subject of numerous appeals as various parties, most notably the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) and the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC), attempted to demonstrate standing on behalf of the internationally-based gambling firms. On March 8, Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that no party with adequate standing had presented themselves to contest the forfeiture, that none of the parties had attempted to implement software to block Kentucky residents from accessing the sites, and that the domains did indeed constitute “gambling devices” and were thus subject to forfeiture by the Commonwealth.
Wingate ordered a copy of his order to be served to US-based .com/.net domain registry Verisign and each individual domain registrar, which shall then be responsible for transferring control of the 132 domains to the Commonwealth. (The other nine domains of the original 141 – including PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker – are currently embroiled with their own legal tussles with the US Department of Justice.)
Speaking of, Judge Leonard Sand has granted another extension in the civil case against the poker companies and individuals indicted on Black Friday by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The last extension was granted in November and was set to expire this month. The latest extension gives the defendants until May 14 to respond to the government’s complaint, which was amended in September to include Full Tilt principals Howard Lederer, Ray Bitar and Rafe Furst.
