On Thursday a judge in Kentucky ruled that all online gambling web sites must take immediate steps to block users from the state of Kentucky. The legal ruling has grave implications for the online gaming industry, and could be used as a precedent to block users from other states.
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear is heading up the movement, and according to Efluxmedia.com, has been putting pressure on the state’s judges to enact a statewide ban to effectively “lockout” Kentucky residents from not only gambling online, but even visiting gambling sites.
As usual though, there is a political motive behind Governor Beshear’s overzealous attack on the online gaming industry: the state of Kentucky has instituted its own legal gambling scheme, and it is expected to be a major source of revenue for the state. By blocking other online gambling web sites to Kentucky residents, the state is effectively trying to “knee cap” the competition.
Kentucky judge Thomas Wingate issued his ruling on Thursday, rejecting the requests of online gaming web sites to take into account previous rulings in other states. Wingate argued that previous rulings were not relevant in this case, and that the Internet “is still not above the law.”
To enforce the ruling, the judge has issued an ultimatum to gambling web sites: they must block all users from within the state in 30 days, or risk having their Internet domain become the property of the state of Kentucky. If the state gets their way, after 30 days the only options for gambling that Kentucky residents will have will be the Kentucky State lottery and heavily-taxed horseracing. Of course, both of these gambling options put money directly into the coffers of the state government, so one could argue there is a tremendous conflict of interest here.
Attorneys for online gambling web sites argued that the state of Kentucky had no jurisdiction over global online gambling web sites, the majority of which are located thousands of miles away from the continental United States. If the ruling by Judge Wingate stands (which is questionable at best), it will set a very dangerous precedent, which could allow small countries, provinces and even cities to block access to gambling web sites (or any other) from their specific community.
The online gambling industry has vowed to fight the ruling, and actually, we should all be thankful that they are. If allowed to stand, Kentucky’s new “ban our residents or lose your web domain” policy could have far-reaching implications, and give unnecessary credence to the Stalin-like Internet control that already exists in nations like China and Iran, to name two obvious examples.
