Kentucky Supreme Court Prepares for IMEGA Poker CaseHighest Court in Kentucky to Hear Government’s Case |
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On Thursday, the oral arguments for one of the most prominent poker-related cases will take place in Kentucky — and you can watch it live.
The hearing, which is open to the public and available on http://courts.ky.gov, could be the conclusion of what has been a lengthy battle between the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) and Kentucky Governor Steven Beshear.
The court case is a result of Gov’s Beshear’s controversial move to seize the domain names of several online sites, including many poker sites, such as PokerStars, Full Tilt, DoylesRoom, Bodog, UltimateBet, Absolute Poker, and Cake Poker.
In all, 141 domain names were seized.
iMEGA, an organization that has fought for poker players’ rights in the past in both federal court and in state courts, immediately took up the fight. The organization ran into an early setback as a circuit court judge sided with Gov. Beshear’s decision in a ruling last year.
In his ruling, the circuit court judge referenced a law that allowed officials to seize devices that are used for illegal gambling. iMEGA argued that since online poker was legal, the seizure of the domain names was therefore unlawful.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals reversed the circuit court’s decision in January of this year by a 2-1 decision, although it refrained from commenting on the legality of online poker.
“Regardless of our view as to the advisability of regulating or criminalizing Internet gambling sites, the General Assembly has not seen fit to amend (state law) so as to bring domain names within the definition of gambling devices,” the court of appeals wrote.
Gov. Beshear, a Democrat, was determined to fight the ruling, issuing an appeal to the Kentucky Supreme Court. The court agreed to hear the case, and this Thursday at 11 a.m., both sides will give their oral arguments.
Several organizations have joined iMEGA in its lawsuit, including the Interactive Gaming Council, the Poker Players Alliance, the ACLU, the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Internet Commerce Association, eBay, and Network Solutions.
Both sides in Commonwealth of Kentucky v. iMEGA, et al will have 15 minutes to present their arguments.
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