Amidst an ongoing legal battle in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the United States, several online poker rooms and networks have altered their policies towards players from that locale. Poker News Daily has confirmed that the Merge Gaming Network has blocked any new players from Kentucky from setting up an account on any of its client poker rooms. However, existing customers from the Commonwealth will still be able to play as normal on the virtual felts of the Merge Gaming Network.
The change has already gone into effect across the Merge Gaming Network and comes on the heels of a similar measure at the Microgaming Network, which has blocked access by residents of 13 states based on IP addresses. The banned states by Microgaming include Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, and Utah. Until the recent legal action in Kentucky, the Commonwealth was not present on the block lists of many sites.
Online poker rooms that are affected by the Merge Gaming decision include CarbonPoker, PDC Poker. Poker Nordica, Iron Duke, Texas Holdem, Golden Arch Poker, Rumble Poker, Poker City, Jam Poker, WalkerPoker, G2Gpoker, Spin32Poker, Lucky Hog, Reefer Poker, Wass Poker, BetED Poker, PokerOne, RPM Poker, and ACED.
The Network offers customers on its bevy of member poker rooms the opportunity to compete in satellites into some of the largest live tournaments held, including the World Series of Poker, Asian Pacific Poker Tour, World Poker Tour, and the Aussie Millions. Software features available as part of its poker client include a Quick Seat option, Rabbit Cam, the ability to expose only one card to opponents after a hand has concluded, and the option to run the board twice to diminish variance.
At the time of writing, the Merge Gaming Network had 3,783 players online. Its bad beat jackpot was well over $500,000. Like many other of the world’s largest online poker rooms, the Merge Gaming Network is licensed by the Canadian-based Kahnawake Gaming Commission and secured by thawte.
In Kentucky, the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) and Interactive Gaming Council (IGC), which are two of the leading parties in the case, have filed separate petitions to the Kentucky Court of Appeals to step in and dismiss the case against 141 internet gambling domain names, including MicroGaming.com and Merge Gaming site ReeferPoker.com. The domain names belonging to online poker rooms PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Cake Poker, Doyle’s Room, and Bodog are also in jeopardy.
Judge Thomas Wingate, a lower court judge who upheld the actions by Governor Steve Beshear, who seized the domain names in question, stated that if users from Kentucky were blocked, then the site “shall be relieved from the effects of the Seizure Order and from any further proceedings in the instant civil forfeiture action.” The Court also will relinquish jurisdiction to prosecute the company as long as it does not solicit Kentucky customers.
A three judge appeals panel is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, November 18th to decide the future of the case. A final forfeiture hearing in the lower court is on tap for December 3rd. It remains to be seen what action the Merge Gaming and Microgaming Networks will take if the case is successfully dismissed.
In a blog posted on DoylesRoom.com, one of the domain names at risk in Kentucky, namesake Doyle Brunson gave his take on the proceedings: “I’m not going to go into all the legal issues, but Kentucky is in for a hell of a battle and every legal opinion I’ve heard says they don’t have a chance of winning. I’m sure all the poker sites have backup domain names in reserve.” Brunson’s site is also a member of the Microgaming Network.
