Kentucky Case Closed… for Now
The Kentucky case concerning the over 141 online casinos that were seized in
2008 was the topic of conversation, along with gambling on horse racing.
Recently the Kentucky Court of Appeals made an attempt to stop all unregulated
online casinos that operated in their state. The vote came down to a 2 to 1 in
favor of the State of Kentucky to have complete jurisdiction over the online
casino domains that were seized earlier in 2008. This, however, means that the
online casinos can continue to operate. One of the state’s appellates said to a
reporter that they did not see it fit for themselves to criminalize internet
gambling websites for merely existing.
One of the biggest players in the pro online casino movement is the Executive
Director of Poker Players Alliance, John Pappas. Pappas said that this ruling
marks a huge victory for internet freedom. The governors of Kentucky, Gov. Steve
Beshear and his office have not yet made any official statements regarding the
ruling. If you can recall, the person that was spearheading these online casinos
was the Governor of Kentucky himself. They have not even released whether or not
they would take this ruling to the State’s Court of Appeals, however they did
mention that they were going to take time to review the outcome of the case.
Another person that was pleased with the Kentucky rulings is the director of the
Poker Players Alliance, Rich Muny. He has also been a staple in the pro online
casino movement. He mentioned Governor Beshear’s 2007 campaign in which he ran
on the platform that they could expand land based casinos but insisting that
online casinos were bad for the state. Muny has also said that he hopes that the
Governor will now focus his efforts on regulating online casinos and how to tax
them to most benefit the people of Kentucky.