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 Looks like the battle over gambling domain names in Kentucky will continue. The Kentucky Supreme Court decided that a case involving the seizure and forfeit of 141 internet gambling domain names will return to trail court. Their decision reads in part, "Because the trial court has not had the opportunity to address Petitioner's claims, both as to standing and jurisdiction, they cannot establish standing to pursue the writ they seek.
"Basically, the Court decided that before more actions can be taken Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) and Interactive Gaming Council (IGC) need to prove in a lower court that they have standing to intervene on behalf of the domain names at risk.
The Kentucky Supreme Court asserted, "This Court cannot justify granting a writ against the Franklin Circuit Court when that body has acted and ruled correctly thus far in this case regarding standing issues... Until the Circuit Court determines that the domain owners or registrants are properly before the court, no one has established standing to proceed on a writ action."
In response to the Kentucky Supreme Court's assertion that iMEGA and the IGC lacked standing, both trade organizations produced written affidavits from the owners of several of the domain names involved stating that they were in fact members of the organization earlier this year.
Following the ruling iMEGA Chairman Joe Brennan told Poker News Daily, "We proved organizational standing based on the standard they laid out. The Court said that we needed to have at least one of our members come forward and provide an affidavit. That was based on case law, but for some reason, they've decided based on a technicality in procedure to send it back."
"The issue regarding standing has not been disproved. The Kentucky Supreme Court said that our argument for standing should be presented to the trial court. Therefore, the issue was not ripe for the State Supreme Court to render a decision."
"This is uncomfortable for the Commonwealth because there's going to be another public airing of the flimsy pretext they used to seize the domain names from the beginning. They're going to trot out these arguments that have so far not held water with any of the courts except Wingate's."
No court date for the new trail has been set. We here at Casinofan will keep you posted on the latest news & developments.
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