Attorneys Attack Beshear

If you haven’t heard by now, Governor Steve Beshear is attempting to seize 141 online casino domain names as he says that they are endangering Kentucky residents. He says that he is trying to protect his residents from the online casino sites, and from falling down the path into online casino addiction. However, if this was truly the case, wouldn’t he outlaw gambling in his state as well? Instead, this is just an attempt to create a monopoly in the state and keep their gambling dollars in state instead of out of state.

Now the courts are hearing the case against Beshear – with attorneys petitioning the court to vacate the decision to move forward with the forfeiture hearing against the online casino sites. The 141 online casinos had their attorneys there arguing against Judge Thomas Wingate’s decision, and they argued that the state had used a version of civil and criminal law mixed together to come to their conclusion.

Attorney Jon Fleischaker, representing the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association argued that "It [was] not sufficient for the state or a lower court judge to decide on their own that there is a criminal violation." He discussed established legal precedents including the US Sixth Circuit Court case that said that online casinos were essentially billboards and that the state allowed out of state companies to advertise on them.

The state attorney for Kentucky, Erik Lycan said that the state had the right to stop their residents from gambling in other states if they wanted to. The court asked him if the state had the right to shut roads stopping them from going to other states to gamble and he said that they had that right. This angered many of those in the room that the state felt they had ownership of their residents and could tell them what to do.