Update on Kentucky attempt to seize gambling domains
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Two developments late last week in the ongoing story of the State of Kentucky’s attempt to seize control of some 140 gambling-related domain names. Background on that here.
First, on Friday a Kentucky judge granted a continuance requested by iMEGA, effectively delaying implementation of the seizure. The stay moves the court date for iMEGA’s motion to dismiss back to October 7th. “I have a good feeling about our motion,” said Edward Leyden, president of iMEGA, after today’s hearing. “Judge Wingate is a very straight forward, common sense judge and a thoughtful guy so we are in good hands.”
“Registrars are caught in the middle here,” Leyden points out. “On one hand they are concerned that the commonwealth will come after them. On the other hand they are concerned that the contract party will come after them seeking significant damages.”
Operators appear to be taking no chances, however. A large amount of the companies named in the Kentucky action are taking steps to protect their businesses should their current domains be taken from their control. According to a report from Poker News Daily:
Several rooms that would have been affected have confirmed to Poker News Daily that contingency plans were in place in a case a forfeiture hearing that occurred in Friday in Franklin County, Kentucky was successful. PND has learned that Full Tilt Poker, for example, purchased the domain name fulltilt.com. That domain now forwards to fulltiltpoker.com, which is the site’s main URL. Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet also had contingency plans in place in the event that their domains were forfeited after a ruling by Judge Thomas Wingate.
We’ll update as events warrant.
