Tokwiro Online Casinos Withdraw From Kentucky
Some online casinos have decided to be cautious in the Kentucky court case, with appeals due to be heard Friday. Microgaming had earlier withdrawn all its affiliated casinos from the entire US market. Now Tokwiro has decided to no longer accept Kentucky players.
Tokwiro, which is owned by a former Kahnawake chief and is regulated by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, chose to protect themselves in case of an adverse ruling on the appeals. Kentucky has filed to seize the domain names of 141 Internet gambling sites, and the lower court judge granted the motion, allowing the casinos to retain their domain names only if Kentucky citizens were blocked from the sites.
While most legal experts think the decision will be overturned on any one of a number of grounds, a finding in favor of the initial decision by the appeals court could leave online casinos vulnerable.
Tokwiro is the operator of both Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, two online poker rooms which have recently achieved notoriety by being featured in a "Sixty Minutes" piece about online cheating. The two sites have formed the CEREUS poker network, which becomes the third-largest online poker operator for US players, after PokerStars and FullTiltPoker.
The possibility of Tokwiro reopening its online gambling sites to Kentucky residents exists, depending on the outcome of the ongoing court case. If a decision clearly prevents states from pursuing options like the forfeiture of domain names in the future, expect Tokwiro to lift its Kentucky ban.
