It might sound a little bizarre, but it’s true. A Kentucky court has said that the state is within its rights to grab the domain names of 141 different gambling sites in order to protect its citizens, since the state forbids gambling.
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear said:
“Unlicensed, unregulated, illegal Internet gambling poses a tremendous threat to the citizens of the Commonwealth because of its ease, availability and anonymity. The owners and operators of these illegal sites prey on Kentucky citizens, including our youth, and deprive the Commonwealth of millions of dollars in revenue. It’s an underworld wrought with scams and schemes.”
The next step will be a hearing tomorrow when domain name registrars will be asked to hand over the domain names to the State.
According to Vnunet, Justice and Public Safety Secretary J. Michael Brown has acknowledged that a number of gambling sites have blocked Kentucky residents, but said that his duty was to those in the state. Gambling might be banned in the Bluegrass state, but it’s not in most parts of the world.
The implications of this could be far-reaching on Internet commerce.
