Poker News Daily has confirmed that the Kentucky Court of Appeals has granted the request of the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) to stay a ruling handed down by Judge Thomas Wingate last month. Oral arguments will now be heard in a Louisville courtroom on Friday, December 12th at 10:00am ET in front of the Appeals Court. The motion to stay was granted by Judges Caperton, Keller, and Taylor.
On October 16th, Judge Wingate of the Franklin Circuit Court, which makes its home in the state’s capital of Frankfort, upheld the actions by Governor Steve Beshear to seize and potentially forfeit 141 internet gambling domain names, including those belonging to online poker rooms Ultimate Bet, PokerStars, Absolute Poker, Full Tilt Poker, Cake Poker, Doyle’s Room, and Microgaming. The latter has, as of this week, ordered its licensees to cease taking new customers from the United States. Several Microgaming sites have blocked U.S. players entirely and the website Microgaming.com is inaccessible by users in the United States.
Judge Wingate ordered the owners of the 141 domain names to use blocking technology in order to prohibit Kentucky residents from accessing the site. He noted, “Upon a showing of proof that geographic blocks and/or other similar software or devices have been installed and are operational… the Commonwealth is hereby directed to serve prompt written notice… that the Seizure Order, as to the said relevant internet domain name, has been withdrawn or rescinded.” If domain names were actually forfeited, they would be inaccessible by users from around the world, not just those in Kentucky.
On October 22nd, iMEGA announced that it had filed a writ of mandamus asking the Court of Appeals to intervene in the case. Judge Wingate had initially scheduled a final forfeiture hearing for November 17th. That date was delayed until December 3rd in order to allow for a potential petition to the Court of Appeals. Now, the action at the lower court level is stayed until at least Friday, December 12th, when attorneys for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet as well as iMEGA, the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC), and representatives of several of the domain names will take to the floor of a Louisville courtroom to debate the merits of the seizure in front of Judges Caperton, Keller, and Taylor.
The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) was one of several organizations to file a brief in the case. It took issue with Judge Wingate’s decree that poker was not a game of skill: “Chance, though not the only element of a game of poker, is the element which defines its essence. In the end, no matter how skillful or cunning the player, who wins and who loses is determined by the hands the players hold.” The PPA responded in a press release that is available on its website, “The judge simply ruled on point of fact, without the state offering any facts contrary to the substantial evidence submitted by the PPA. The issue of whether poker is a game of skill, and thus legal in Kentucky, has support in case law and science.”
Other questions in the case concern whether the State had the jurisdiction to seize the 141 domain names in the first place. Doubt also surrounds the means by which the sites were seized, as Beshear claimed they were “gambling devices” similar to tangible objects like slot machines and roulette wheels that you would find in an illegal underground casino. Moreover, the involvement of Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown taking on the case, instead of Kentucky’s Attorney General, has become a point of controversy. Constitutional violations outlined by iMEGA include violations of free speech, the Commerce Clause, and due process.
A call placed to the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet for comment was not returned at press time.
We’ll have more news for you as it breaks right here on Poker News Daily.
