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November 18, 2008
Last month Judge Thomas Wingate of the Franklin County Circuit Court ruled that the seizure of the domain names of 141 gambling sites by Kentucky Governer Steve Beshear was legal. The affected domains include a long list of online bingo sites, including 123 Bingo, Big Time Bingo, Bingo Knights, USA Bingo, Win A Bingo and many others.
The situation looked bleak, not just for American bingo online players, but for many online gaming companies whose sites weren't based in either the USA or Kentucky, but whose domain names had been seized anyway. Frustratingly for the gaming industry, most of their representatives at the original hearing were not granted legal standing, so their arguments weren't considered in Judge Wingate's ruling.
However, the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) has filed an appeal, and managed to get it heard. A three-judge panel has ordered a stay of Judge Wingate's court order to seize the domains pending the outcome of their hearing. iMEGA is not the only group appealing the decision, and in the interests of efficiency the appeals panel has merged all of the interested parties' motions into a single case which will be heard beginning 12 December.
Joining the iMEGA is the Interactive Gaming Council, who have a marked stake in the outcome of the appeal. With them stand the Poker Players Alliance, who have long been campaigning to get their favourite sport recognised as a game of skill – but as it currently isn't, it is subject to the same fate.
The significance of Judge Wingate's decision reaches far beyond the online gambling that it was intended to curtail. Some people believe that the ramifications will impact every area of e-commerce operating online, and will affect free speech worldwide.
For this reason, the appeal is joined by representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union, some emissaries from the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), and attorneys from the Electronic Freedom Frontier (EFF), a group with a long and involved history of campaigning for freedom of speech on the Internet.
John Morris of the CDT said, "if the Kentucky order is upheld, no speech that conflicts with any law, anywhere in the world, would be safe from censorship. Just as Kentucky is trying to take down sites located around the world, any government seeking to stifle free expression could try to interfere with lawful speech hosted in the United States."
Written by Charlene Grey for BingoStreet.com – the number one resource in the UK for the best online bingo sites bringing you non-stop bingo promotions.
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