Kentucky Court Halts Gambling Domain Seizure Case

The Kentucky State Court of Appeals has put a case involving the seizure of 132 international gambling domains on hold, as the court ruled that the Interactive Gaming Council has a right to become involved in the case.

The ruling from the three judge court panel revealed that Kentucky attorneys have treated the domain owners as a group, but now is looking to go after the domain owners as individuals in order to prevent the Interactive Gaming Council from becoming involved. That will not be possible as the IGCC is legally able to represent the owners, protecting their identities and waging (legal) battle on their behalf.

In the court's ruling Judge Allison Jones wrote: "The Commonwealth cannot now turn the tables and ask the court to require each domain name owner to come forward individually and assert virtually identical legal arguments through separate counsel to resolve threshold, purely legal issues that affect the validity of the entire forfeiture procedure."

"The alternative - forcing 141 domain name owners to pursue their claims individually - would be burdensome and inefficient."

The case will now be sent back down to Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Wingate.

The case originates from an action by politicians in the state of Kentucky, who seized the domains of 141 different online betting operators who offered gaming services to the Bluegrass State.