Kentucky Continues Trying to Force Operators to give up their Domains

Submitted by Evan on Fri, 2010-03-19 at 19:38

The state of Kentucky has been battling illegal online casino operators by forcing them to forfeit their domain names. Operators are not able to do anything about it because none of them are willing to accept the consequences that will come with stepping forward and saying that they own the site.

Online gambling remains illegal in the US even though several states are considering changing that. All online casino operators who accept players from Kentucky face the possibility of fines and other consequences if they are caught. Legislators in Kentucky are only able to tell who owns the online casinos if someone steps forward to claim the domain. Therefore, operators will only be able to keep their original domains if they admit to running the site, which will lead to serious consequences.

This leaves online casino operators in a catch-22. They can claim their domain names and have Kentucky lift the freeze on them but they will be charged and prosecuted or they can allow their site to be seized, stay quiet and come up with another domain that does not serve Kentucky.

When Kentucky first came up with this solution, they were unable to move forward with it until the Supreme Court ruled on whether they had the right to freeze domains. It turns out that the Supreme Court agreed with the state and will allow them to seize all online casino domains that accept players from Kentucky.