Kentucky Governor trying to *steal* 140 Gambling Domain Names

[beaston]

Even if you don't live in Kentucky, I URGE you to contact their representatives regarding this. Contact information will be listed at the end.

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear is trying to confiscate 140 domain names of popular gambling sites; some companies of which include Golden Palace, WSEX, SportsBetting, Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, Cake Poker, Doyles Room and Cake Poker.

Has he gone insane? With Kentucky's representatives being 99% republican, I doubt there's any chance of stopping him. We all know that Bush would never step in on this, even though I consider it to be unconstitutional.

In my opinion, I think he's just doing this to pave the way for offline gambling in Kentucky in the near future and is just doing this to get rid of the competition. We all know that horse racing is one of Kentucky's main money-makers, so he's definitely not trying to pull this stunt for moral reasons...

They've already been successful in confiscating one domain name - luckypyramidcasino.com, and have already nullified the DNS entry. You can't even view the website.

Full article

"Unlike casinos that operate on land or on riverboats in the United States, these operations pay no tax revenues, provide no jobs and yield no tourism benefits," Beshear said at a Monday afternoon Capitol press conference. "They are leeches on our communities."

Administrative Contact:
Commonwealth of Kentucky Justice Cabinet
Eric Lycan ()
+1.8592540000
Fax: -
125 Holmes Street
Frankfort, KY 40601
US

Again, PLEASE make your voices heard! When/where is this going to stop?

Contact Governor Steve Beshear

Mailing Address
700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 100
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Phone/Fax

Main Line: (502) 564-2611
Fax: (502) 564-2517
TDD: (502) 564-9551 (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf)


Kentucky-Congressman

NAME:
Edward Whitfield (Republican)
236 Cannon Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
PHONE:
1-202-225-3115
FAX:
1-202-225-3547
E-MAIL:
ed.whitfield@mail.house.gov
WEB:
http://www.house.gov/whitfield/

NAME:
Ron Lewis (Republican)
2418 Rayburn House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
PHONE:
1-202-225-3501
FAX:
1-202-226-2019
E-MAIL:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
WEB:
http://www.house.gov/ronlewis/

NAME:
Anne Northup (Republican)
1004 Longworth House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
PHONE:
1-202-225-5401
FAX:
1-202-225-5776
E-MAIL:
rep.northup@mail.house.gov
WEB:
http://www.house.gov/northup/

NAME:
Ken Lucas (Democrat)
1237 Longworth House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
PHONE:
1-202-225-3465
FAX:
none
E-MAIL:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
WEB:
http://www.house.gov/kenlucas/

NAME:
Harold Rogers (Republican)
2406 Rayburn House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
PHONE:
1-202-225-4601
FAX:
1-202-225-0940
E-MAIL:
Talk2Hal@mail.house.gov
WEB:
http://www.house.gov/rogers/

NAME:
Ernie Fletcher (Republican)
2463
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
PHONE:
1-202-225-4706
FAX:
1-202-225-2122
E-MAIL:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
WEB:
http://www.house.gov/fletcher/

Kentucky-Senators

NAME:
Jim Bunning (Republican)
316 Hart Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
PHONE:
1-202-224-4343
FAX:
1-202-224-1373
E-MAIL:
jim_bunning@bunning.senate.gov
WEB:
http://www.senate.gov/~bunning/

NAME:
Mitch McConnell (Republican)
361A Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
PHONE:
1-202-224-2541
FAX:
1-202-224-2499
E-MAIL:
senator@mcconnell.senate.gov
WEB:
http://www.senate.gov/~mcconnell/

[beaston]

It seems that this is gaining momentum. ENOM is complying fully with Kentucky's request, and now another domain name - highrollerslounge.com - is now transferred to Kentucky's Justice Cabinet.

It looks like popular domain name registrar ENOM is complying with the online domain name seizure order issued by a Kentucky judge to the delight of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear. Earlier today Point-Spreads.com reported that LuckyPyramidCasino.com was seized and now a second domain name HighRollersLounge.com has its administrative contact information listed as Eric Lycan from the Commonwealth of Kentucky Justice Cabinet.

Source

Here's the court papers that include all of the domains they are trying to take: http://www.thedomains.com/wp-content...main-names.pdf

[beaston]

Here's another good point of view:

The US have unusual gun laws. They allow the sales of guns to bordering schizophrenics. Guns, if in the wrong hands, take away the freedom and lives of others. What is different about gambling online is that it takes away personal choice. Not the removal of choice to gamble, this can be done on state taxed land based sites, but the removal of choice where to spend their hard earned cash, the removal of choice on what they can and cannot access online.

Source

I wholeheartedly agree. I work hard for my money, pay taxes on it and don't want "Big Brother" stepping in and saying what I can or cannot do with it. If I choose to gamble online, then more power to me. This is where Ron Paul is great, he wants the same thing for us Americans. It's just too bad he wanted to do away with Social Security and Medicare at the same time...if it wasn't for that, I think he'd have a great shot at becoming our next President.

[beaston]

Wow. If this issue wasn't so serious, this article from the Kentucky Post newspaper would be pretty damn funny. I don't think you could find a more biased article anywhere on the face of the earth. ...err, ok, maybe from FOX news, but I'm still waiting.

By seizing the domain names, Kentucky can require that the illegal casino operators use readily available technology to block their domains from being accessed in the Commonwealth.

Ok, so what's the use of seizing these domain names in the first place? This statement makes it sound like they're saying 'Ok, we're going to steal your domain name, but you can continue to operate with a different domain name as long as you block your site from Kentucky residents.'

This makes it seem more like they're just doing this for a publicity stunt more than anything.

Beshear said Kentucky loses tens of million of dollars a year to online gambling, which is illegal in all 50 states.

Really? Last time I checked, only 11 states had specific laws against gambling online. Aren't you overstepping your jurisdiction here, Steve Beshear?

And, he said, the illegal activity has repercussions far exceeding its monetary losses to the Commonwealth:

Unlicensed Internet gambling significantly undermines and threatens horseracing, Kentucky's signature industry and a key tourism industry, by creating unregulated and untaxed competition.

FINALLY! We have the whole truth as to why they're doing this!!!! Amazing. I would have never guessed their true motives.

The unregulated gaming lacks consumer protections to ensure that individuals who choose to gamble are actually paid for their winnings.

Quit blowing smoke up our a**. Only 1% of online casinos are rogue outfits. The rest of them are very trustworthy, and you will never have a problem in getting paid. Why do you think the UK and other EU countries have licensed online casinos? Why shouldn't the USA follow suit? Kentucky is grasping at straws to make sure this goes through.

Source

[bartongrl1]

This is just plain infuriating. They are seizing 141 gambling domain names. That is totally redundant. If they dont want the people in Kentucky playing in online casinos, then find a way to stop them. Dont take away from everyone else who wants to gamble on line.

Horse racing has never caught my fancy so it isnt anything I am interested in but because this bill doesnt agree with Kentuckys stand on horse racing does by no means give them the right to muck about in all other forms of gambling.

There are other ways for them to fight what they dont like. And other ways to go about it.

There are probably a lot more gamblers than horse racing lovers so where does that leave the rest of us? High and dry is where it leaves us.

And what happens if someone jumps on the bandwagon against racing horses? This whole schmeal could lead to a total ban of everything everywhere if everyone decides to disagree on things of this nature.

It will be interesting to see the next level that this all reaches. Please keep us informed.

[beaston]

Nothing really new to report -

Other than the fact that there are certain "tabloids" (Enquirer to be exact) spreading false information saying that caribbeangold.com as well as sportsbook.com are in the hands of Kentucky lawmakers right now. This information is NOT TRUE.

I urge you to not take anything written about this at face value for right now, and be sure to verify anything that you're not sure about regarding this story.

Also, feel free to send a message to the "writer" that put this piece of information on the web and how you feel about him spreading false rumors. I did.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...te-cybersquats

The State has snapped up 141 domain names of Internet gambling sites which are working and a few that are not.

Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ordered the names transferred and sites like caribbeangold.com and sportsbook.com now belong to the State.

What a crock. There's only a couple of domains that Kentucky now owns, and it's very unlikely that they'll get the overseas companies that registered most of these domains to comply with their request.

[dominique]

Luckypyramidcasino belonged to Warren Cloud and was discontinued after he passed away. Not a working site anyways. I dunno about the other one.

[beaston]

Originally Posted by dominique

Luckypyramidcasino belonged to Warren Cloud and was discontinued after he passed away. Not a working site anyways. I dunno about the other one.

There's still some speculation as to Mr. Cloud's "convenient" death, especially with the re-branding of Virtual's casinos following not that long after. Why did they change the names of all of their casinos, if they have nothing to hide? Wouldn't it be something if the players that were never paid by the "old" Virtual group ended up playing at one of their casinos again?

Has anyone actually seen hard evidence that Warren Cloud is indeed dead? I'm sure it wouldn't take much in his neck of the woods to pay off a Doctor to write out a fake death certificate.

[dominique]

Be that as it may, that was one of his domains. And I understand that these two domains were voluntarily relinquished.

Some others are locked pending clarification by the court (specifically Godaddy). Some registrars are just not responding to the request by Kentucky.

[beaston]

Ok, back on track. The hearing was postponed until tomorrow, late afternoon.

Their reasons for this is:

“”"Please be advised that the Commonwealth of Kentucky we will be conducting settlement conferences tomorrow with a number of defendants in the above captioned matter. In light of those conferences, the Court has continued tomorrow’s hearing, and rescheduled it for Friday, September 26, 2025 at 3:30 pm est. At that time the Court will consider the claims against the remaining, non-settling defendants. An order from the Court reflecting this change will follow.”"”

Source