Online Gambling Industry Breathes Easier After Kentucky Verdict
Two of three Kentucky judges found for sanity and common sense as the Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned a lower court and rejected the request for forfeiture of 141 online casino domain names. Judge Michelle M. Keller and Judge Jeff S.Taylor agreeed that the state's case against the online gambling sites was flawed in several ways, not bothering to consider further points of contention.The two judges agreed with the objection by the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association that the use of the term "gambling device" in Kentucky statutes did not apply to Internet domain names, and that the legislature had had ample opportunity to include domain names but had not. Judge Taylor expounded upon Judge Keller's majority decision by noting that the law used to bring the proceeding was a criminal statute, but the state had sought a civil remedy without conducting a criminal case.
Judge Keller stated in her opinion that, in order to reverse such a decision, it must be generally found that either the lower court acted without jurisdiction or within jurisdiction but in error. By deciding that Judge Wingate had been in error applying the statute against gaming devices to this action, there was no need to review further charges that Kentucky had no jurisdiction over the Internet, or arguments regarding Constitutionality.
Judge Michael Caperton dissented, reminding all how circuitous and contorted the legal logic supporting this case could get. He wrote in the dissenting opinion that, by applying a strict definition of "device" as something man-made rather than from nature, computers are devices, as is the Internet and software, acting as part of a larger gambling construction. Of course, Caperton may still have overturned the earlier decision on any of the other arguments, if the case had reached that point.
Further, Caperton's assertion that domain names are part of the overall gambling device of the computer network because they make the gambling connection possible could be used to argue that electricity is also a gambling device, as it powers the computer, and therefore could be seized by the state.
Joe Brennan Jr., iMEGA chairman, said, "The judges clearly agreed with our interpretation of the law, and thankfully, this reverses what would have been a terrible precedent for our country and the Internet.”
