The internet gambling industry didn’t have to wait long to find out the next step in the case involving the seizure and potential forfeiture of 141 internet gambling domain names. Poker News Daily has obtained the Notice of Appeal filed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The matter may now head to the State Supreme Court.
The appeal, which was filed on Wednesday, reads, “Notice is hereby given that the Respondent, Commonwealth of Kentucky ex rel. J. Michael Brown, Secretary, Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, by and through counsel, hereby appeals the January 20, 2009 Order Granting Petition for Writ of Prohibition.” The Writ, which was filed by the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) and the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC), was submitted to the Court of Appeals in Kentucky, which elected to hear the case. In December, a one hour hearing occurred in a court room in Louisville, the state’s largest city, located down the interstate from Frankfort, the site of a lower court hearing.
The cases, which are numbered 2008-CA-002000, 2008-CA-002019, and 2008-CA-002036, officially list iMEGA, PlayersOnly.com, Sportsbook.com, SportsInteraction.com, MySportsbook.com, LinesMaker.com, VicsBingo.com, and the IGC as petitioners. Brown and Judge Thomas Wingate, who handed down the Circuit Court decision, are listed as “Real Party in Interest” and “Respondent,” respectively. iMEGA has argued that the State’s Attorney General, not Brown, should be at the forefront of the legal proceedings.
In a press statement released by the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet on Wednesday, Brown commented, “The Commonwealth will continue its action to protect Kentucky citizens from illegal internet gambling operations and appeal the recent Court of Appeals ruling to the state Supreme Court. The evidence demonstrated that illegal and unregulated activity is occurring in Kentucky and that millions of dollars are being lost as a result of that activity, a fact that wasn’t disputed in Tuesday’s ruling.”
Two of the three Court of Appeals judges sided with the internet gambling industry, arguing that the State did not have jurisdiction. Judge Michael Caperton submitted the lone dissenting opinion, arguing that domain names are a part of a greater “gambling device.” The lack of a unanimous ruling was cited by Brown as a central reason for the appeal to occur: “We now have two judges who agree with our position, and two who disagree, so the most appropriate step is to make our case to the higher court.” Judges Michelle Keller and Jeff Taylor provided majority opinions.
The Notice of Appeal states that the Prohibition of the Writ is “stayed pending resolution of the appeal.” Also stayed is the final forfeiture hearing for the 141 domain names in jeopardy. The proceeding was originally scheduled for November and then pushed back until December. However, in the interim, the Court of Appeals took on the case. The domain names in question include those belonging to some of the largest online poker sites in the world, including PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Bodog. Domain names belonging to Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker, Cake Poker, PlayersOnly, and Doyle’s Room may not be subject to forfeiture, as these companies bowed to Judge Wingate’s mandate that they block residents of Kentucky from accessing their sites.
The Poker Players Alliance (PPA), which has filed an amicus brief in the case, spoke out against Governor Steve Beshear, Brown, and the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet’s decision to appeal. John Pappas, the organization’s Executive Director, commented, “Kentucky residents should be outraged that the Commonwealth is investing another minute of time and another dollar of scarce resources in this quixotic case. The appeals court’s sound rejection of the Commonwealth’s case should have ended this legal debacle in its tracks.” Also filing amicus briefs were the Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, and Network Solutions.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the Bluegrass State.