Minnesota Update: Online Gambling Block Crumbling

The attempt by Minnesota to cut off residents access to some 200 online-gambling related websites seems to be losing steam. On one front, advocacy groups are unleashing a wave of criticism, mostly legal, against the move. On another front, forces within the Minnesota government itself are criticizing the plan.

The latest group to come out against Minnesota’s attempt to blacklist online gambling sites (background here): The Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA), who recently issued letters to the ISPs contacted by the Minnesota Government advising those ISPs that the Minnesota Government had no legal footing to demand compliance.

An excerpt from the letter that outlines iMEGA’s rationale: “Because website operators are not subscribers of yours, have no contracts with you and are not provided facilities by you, you should be aware the the MN DPS is attempting to mislead(either intentionally or inadvertently) you into believing that you are bound by federal law to do what the MN DPS asks,” the letter stated. “In fact, [the Wire Act] simply does not apply to the web site operators and imposes no duty upon you and provides no authority to you to comply with the MN DPS request.”

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety probably expected opposition from industry groups like iMEGA. But what they likely didn’t count on was opposition from within their legislative body. That’s exactly what they got yesterday with the introduction of a bill by Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington that basically would prevent the DPS from following through with its proposed ban.

Garofalo spoke to the Star Tribune about his motivation for introducing the bill: “The Department of Public Safety has to have better things to do with their time than to go after a college kid in his dorm room or some guy sitting in his basement spending a couple of hours playing online poker,” Garofalo said Monday afternoon. “Demanding that a private-sector Internet service provider block access to websites is not a proper function of our state government.”

We’ll have updates as they occur.