Kentucky Governor trying to *steal* 140 Gambling Domain Names

[beaston]

It seems that GoldenCasino.com is now under Kentucky's control. For the life of me, why in the world did these casinos register their domain with an American Company? The domain registrars that are 'across the pond' are simply ignoring Kentucky's request!

What's even more confusing is the fact that www.goldencasino.com still takes you to Golden Casino's website. Why would Kentucky take over the domain, but not do anything with it?

Source

[slotnut]

this is unbelieveable...it has everyones head spinning. Casinos changing thier domains, affiliates right behind them trying to stay caught up...and all because the greedy ass people in government, who are gambling pimps to horse racing, are upset that they are losing money....don't ya think they may be losing money because are ECONOMY is so freakin bad, not because online gaming is taking over!!!!

get a friggin grip. i can' believe this. what next...states that have big investments in football, are they going to go buy up all the baseball sites??

[dominique]

Originally Posted by beaston

It seems that GoldenCasino.com is now under Kentucky's control. For the life of me, why in the world did these casinos register their domain with an American Company? The domain registrars that are 'across the pond' are simply ignoring Kentucky's request!

What's even more confusing is the fact that www.goldencasino.com still takes you to Golden Casino's website. Why would Kentucky take over the domain, but not do anything with it?

Hehe, Kentucky is running an online Casino!

Kentucky says they don't want to shut down the casinos, they just want to charge them for damages and make them block Kentucky. So they try to steal the domain names to force the casinos to obey and pay. In other words - blackmail.

[hbradley]

This is all just a nasty game of dirty pool. When the government does something like this is can't be stopped. It is legal for them to do such a thing?

If we as citizens or business owners were to try and do such a thing we would be in court for a millennium. How dare they if they want compensated let them do it legally.

[screamingmimi04]

I read today that this forfeiture hearing has been put off for 7 days, as the judge said it's a "complex case", and is allowing the lawyers for the defendant domains this additional time to file legal briefs.

Also the report that I read said that none of the seized domain names will have to transfer ownership during this postponement.

Apparently, according to the report, representatives of the state of Kentucky were locked in negotiations with several reps from online casinos, though no information was available as to the outcome.

[beaston]

Sorry for posting this late, but I was waiting for permission from David Brickman, the Jackpot Factory spokesman, to post his findings after talking to his source in the Kentucky Governor's office.

This just confirms what we have all figured from the first place. Kentucky is only doing this to "protect" their vested interest in Horse Racing by driving out the competition. They can claim "to protect our residents/children" until they're blue in the face, but I don't believe that for a second.

They just want to drive the online casino industry out of Kentucky. The residual damage of freezing the domains doesn’t concern them. The other issue as most people suspected is the protection of the horse racing gambling industry within Kentucky.

What really gets me going is this:

Currently people from all over the place can place online bets on races being held in Kentucky.

Ok, so let me get this straight. They're fine with people from all over the world, Kentucky included, placing bets on horse races held on Kentucky's soil, but yet they want online gambling OUT of Kentucky?

If their real reasons for this was to "save" Kentucky residents from the horrors of online gambling, then they should be working to stop people from other states/countries from betting on Kentucky horse races as well. You can't have your cake and eat it, too.



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[screamingmimi04]

I think you are right, they are trying to have their cake and eat it too.

I read something else this morning.......they are complaining about all the online casinos having lawyers representing them. The judge even said that - eventually the owners' names will have to be given to the court.

So I guess it's okay for Kentucky to start all this mess without notifying anyone that they are doing it.........but then they don't want to have anyone fight them back on the matter.

[dominique]

Currently people from all over the place can place online bets on races being held in Kentucky.

Ok, so let me get this straight. They're fine with people from all over the world, Kentucky included, placing bets on horse races held on Kentucky's soil, but yet they want online gambling OUT of Kentucky?

Yep, and that makes it ok for them to cybersquat and to threaten the entire structure of the internet with their behavior.

[beaston]

Good points. I hope the Judge throws this OUT OF COURT because the Governor overstepped his bounds. There's NO defense from Kentucky that would have allowed them to do this without serving every owner of each domain affected with a "cease and decist" letter.

[beaston]

Wow.....

Not really an update, but this just goes to show you what the Governor's office thinks about people that oppose what they're doing.

A person I know on another forum posted that he wrote the Governor's office and basically told Governor Beshea that what he was doing was undermining the www, etc....and got the standard BS reply.

But, before he could even reply with a followup, they banned his IP address so he couldn't send them anymore mail!!!! That just goes to show how one-sided they are, and not even open for any discussion in the matter.

What's even more FUNNY is the fact that he reconnected and sent the email again, and it went through.... So it's obvious that they have no concept of how the Internet works, let alone dynamic IP's.