Update on Kentucky vs. the Internet Lawsuit

Filed in archive Poker Laws on October 12, 2008

Can Kentucky regulate something that does not exist in Kentucky?

There lies the rub of the huge lawsuit that pits the special interest of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear who has been increasingly forthcoming about his reasons behind the historic lawsuit. This of course has to do with the Governor trying to block online gambling in his state via seizure of domain names by the Kentucky government.

Beshear has admitted this is an attempt to "protect" the other gambling interest in the state such as its world-renown horse racing tracks. Webmasters and other industry have been in Kentucky for weeks now while making the simple argument that their servers do not exist in Kentucky (and to make a further point, most do not exist in United States).

Judge Thomas Wingate, who is presiding over the case, will be making a ruling on this case in attempt to gage what jurisdiction a state (or a country for that matter) has on a website if it allows the activity of the website to go on within its state (country) borders.

For the AP story, check out Forbes.com here.