In breaking news from the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the owners of TruePoker.com have filed an affidavit pledging that the company is a member of the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA).
The filing comes nearly one week after the Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously declared that the trade organization lacked standing in the case involving the seizure and potential forfeiture of 141 of the world’s largest internet gambling domain names, including those belonging to PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Now, Yatahay Limited, which owns the domain name TruePoker.com, one of the sites at risk, has come forward to say that it is a member of iMEGA.
Also filing an affidavit was iMEGA Chairman Joe Brennan. According to the Motion to Transfer that was filed on Wednesday, “Brennan and Yatahay state that iMEGA has represented Yatahay’s interests throughout this litigation… Because iMEGA has established associational standing in accordance with the Court’s Opinion by naming a member of its association that has shown a concrete injury in fact, the Court should now resolve the substantive and important issues this case presents.” If the Commonwealth of Kentucky were successful, the domain names in question may be inaccessible around the world.
Attorneys for iMEGA have asked for the case to be transferred back to the Kentucky Supreme Court and pointed out the severe implications the litigation may have: “An action by the Commonwealth of Kentucky that threatens to cut off part of the internet worldwide and threatens the constitutional freedoms on a global scale is of great and immediate public importance and should be immediately taken up by this court.” The Kentucky Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case in October. After a January release date came and went without word, iMEGA learned its fate last Thursday.
The motion calls for “immediate resolution,” although a timeline for the Kentucky Supreme Court to take up iMEGA’s plea is not yet known. According to PokerScout.com, True Poker is a member of the Yatahay Network, which accepts action from the United States and is the 25th largest worldwide in terms of real money ring game traffic. Besides the flagship site True Poker, other rooms on the Yatahay Network include BetCRIS and 5Dimes. According to PokerScout.com, its gaming servers are located in Costa Rica.
Amid the swirl of NCAA Basketball March Madness, Brennan compared the showdown with Kentucky attorneys to a sporting event heading into overtime: “The Commonwealth’s attorneys knew they were lucky to get this one into overtime. It’s time to put them away.” The case centers on several legal questions, including whether domain names, which are located in the depths of cyberspace, constitute “gambling devices” under Kentucky state law. The two-word term typically refers to physical objects like roulette wheels and slot machines that you’d find in an underground casino. The Kentucky Supreme Court called iMEGA’s arguments “numerous [and] compelling.”
A variety of organizations have filed amicus briefs in the Kentucky internet gambling case including the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), eBay, Network Solutions, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy and Technology, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kentucky, Media Access Project, United States Internet Industry Association, Internet Commerce Coalition, and Internet Commerce Association.
In the interest of not endangering its membership, iMEGA chose not to identify its members during the judicial proceedings in Kentucky. Complicating matters was the organization’s ongoing fight to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which iMEGA attempted to prove was unconstitutional. Although the muddled 2006 law was not undone, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the legality of internet gambling may hinge on state law. In addition, the court clearly stated that the UIGEA in itself did not make any internet activity illegal.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest developments in the Kentucky internet gambling case.