Scary**KY seizes "domains in connection w/ illegal gambling", but some were parked!
 

PDF of Order of Seizure of Domain Names

On September 18th, the commonwealth of Kentucky issued a seizure order, ordering 141 domains be taken from their registrants.

?The Domain names shall be immediately transferred by their respective registrars to an account of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.?

The seizure was implemented after the Commonwealth's discovery that the ?domains were being used in connection with illegal gambling activity?.

However, a scary fact for domainers everywhere, some of these domains are simply parked and are NOT taking bets of any kind.

The domains seized include: (the full list is on the PDF)

* fulltiltpoker.com
* indiancasino.com
* bet21.com
* allslots.com
* bodoglife.com
* bookmaker.com
* SportsBook.com
* SportsBetting.com
* superslots.com
* pokerstars.com
* doylesroom.com
* GoldenPalace.com

It appears that no notice of this action was given to any of the registrants, nor was any hearing held giving the registrants an opportunity to appeal.

The order alludes to a court hearing sometime in September for registrants who want to claim their domain ?qualifies for return?.

This is yet another reason that domainers may want to consider moving their domains to a registrar outside the United States, as this order is to the registrars of the domains, not the central registry.

Wait they were able to get goldenpalace, pokerstars, and fulltiltpoker?

Seriously? Holy shit how and why? I mean can a state perhaps just say X is illegal or obscene (our industry ya know) and then snake all of our domains?

http://www.goldenpalace.com is not seized.
http://www.bodoglife.com/ is not seized.
http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/ is not seized.

Not checking the rest, but seems odd. How could KY seize a domain makes no sense.

i cant quote it or find it at moment, but i am pretty sure, there have been laws or something stating that domains are property and can in fact be seized,... i doubt being a state would stop that, states are entities, like coporations and can do that stuff

Hope they put up a fight.

theyll probably be taken soon.. the court order is still recent..

i love USA!

i dont get how they could do it either

what contact the registrar...hello we are the state of kentucky

we want to seize the following domains.....i could see the registrar replying with...is that banjoes playing in the background?
lol

anyway im hoping this is false

no what they do is send an official court document to the registrar. and if its a USA registrar he HAS to comply as per court order requests

From the order, it says, "4. The domain names shall be immediately transferred by their respective Registrars to an account of the Plaintiff, Commonwealth of Kentucky, at each Registrar or, if Plaintiff so specified, to such other Registrar as Plaintiff may designate. The domain names' configurations shall otherwise remain unchanged."

So, who collects the $$$ that these domains are making after "seizure"'??? :helpme

Full Tilt Pokers domain is over seas?

I don't see it that way. A court in Kentucky has no jurisdiction outside of their state lines that could force a registrar not within the state lines to do diddly-squat.

It looks more like an attempt to get the matter kicked up to the supreme court where, if the same verdict were to be upheld, would have the cross state enforcement. But even that would be a losing effort because any of those domain name holders could move to a registrar out of U.S. jurisdiction making any ruling the supreme court renders mute as well.

Must be election time in Kentucky and someone needs a feather in their cap....

god bless america. ill make sure to pee somewhere clever the next time i am in THAT state.

[REGISTRANT]
Organisation Name: Your Whois Privacy
Contact Name: Hostmaster
Address Line 1: PO Box 5085
Address Line 2:
City / Town: Milton Keynes MLO
State / Province: Bucks
Zip / Postcode: MK6 3ZE
Country: UK

FullTiltPoker.com

So KY can seize a domain Registered from the UK? I call bs. These companies that are on that list are multi million dollar companies. International companies. Some that could probably sue the shit out of KY lol.

I am verifying the info.. that being said - it doesn't matter where the domain is registered - the order would go to ICANN which is in California

Dot com is under US government control :helpme, so even though the domains are registered outside the US, chances are they use a US registrar, e.g. enom.

One of them used a France registrar (and UK, obviously), so it will be very interesting to see what pans out.

lots more info here - seems real:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=...-8&sa=N&tab=wn

kind of a scary precedent tho.

USA = Bullies

wow.. that's some fucked off shit

If this actually happens it will be the second time Bodog lost their domain name. They lost Bodog.com a year or two back in a patent lawsuit. The funny thing is the dipshit that won the domain never did anything with it, despite all of the traffic he inherited with it. At the very least you would think he would have parked it with gambling PPC ads, but Bodog.com is still not pointed anywhere.

Although I hate to see this happen to any other gambling site, as far as Calvin Ayre goes I hope he gets ass cancer and is hit by a drunk driver on his way home to Christmas dinner...

this is absolutely ludicrous, pure fascism, I hope the domain owners take legal action soon

"However, a scary fact for domainers everywhere, some of these domains are simply parked and are NOT taking bets of any kind."

I BET the domain owners don't like that

And the collective IQ on GFY continues to plummet!

so a judge from UncleDad Kentucky signed an order to seize domains held by companies all over the world???... well geniuses, it doesn't exactly work like that.

Just because the sites are up and running does not mean that they have not been takn. Remember that is illegal to OWN, OPERATE, or USE a gambling site. So they can now use the sites to track, and arrest people that are placing bets.

Exactly, gain a court judgment legally or fraudulently and forward it to a registrar and the registrar must comply.

The commonwealth of Kentucky has taken control of an online gambling company in its first successful seizure of domain names.

LuckyPyramidCasino.com is now in the control of one Commonwealth of Kentucky Justice Cabinet Eric Lycan, it was revealed by Gambling911.com on Tuesday.

luckypyramidcasino.com is currently off line.

Gov. Steve Beshear said his administration has asked a Franklin County Circuit Court judge to give the state control of 141 gambling Web site domain names. Beshear said he's looking to restrict Kentuckians' access to Web sites with names that include some of the most popular gambling sites for U.S. players: bodoglife.com, doylesroom.com and fulltiltpoker.com.

A hearing is scheduled for Thursday before Judge Thomas Wingate.

"While he's at it he should ban Fox News and CNN from broadcasting in his home state," said one industry analyst who wished not to be named. "When you get down to it, this is about censorship plain and simple, worse than what is seen in Communist China and if I were living in Kentucky I would be outraged."

how long before they do the same to porn domains?

I just read this on another site, and Enom was the registrar that voluntarily turned over the domain name...

http://www.point-spreads.com/industr...t-to-fall.html

No one ever hear of forfeiture laws? They are regularly carried out on a local, state and federal level. The domains were assets of an on going criminal activity taking place in Kentucky.

Homes and property are taken in drug cases. Vehicles seized in prostitution stings. Domain names in gambling busts. I don't see the difference. That doesn't mean I agree ... I just don't see the difference.

Normally I agree with everything you have to say here, but you are missing the point on this one. In the case of Bodog losing their domain name they never showed up to defend themselves in court because they were afraid of being arrested upon entry into the US. Any company that used a US based registrar for their domain is in danger of having it turned over voluntarily.

The State of Kentucky can also sue for, say, all of the tax revenue they claim to lose from Kentucky citizens gambling overseas. They defendants (the gambling sites) never show to court for fear of being arrested, the State of Kentucky gets a judgment against them, and then moves to seize the domain name as an asset. That is what happened to Bodog.com in their case and it can happen again...

It's seems to me Kentucky is doing this to protect their revenue from the horseracing industry...

a few days.

Most cars/trucks seized under forfeiture laws were also parked. (humor) That doesn't mean they weren't part of a criminal operation or assets acquired from a criminal operation or assets owned by a criminal operation.

Google some forfeiture examples ..... scary shit!

do they have casinos in ky? If so I can see the local gaming industry putting pressure on the governor to do something. My wife's sister works at a casino and business has been off real bad.

How about Churchhill Downs and Keenland racetracks. Heavy hitters and I think the only legal online betting in America is horse racing.

ENOM transfers HighRollersLounge.com to Kentucky Governor

http://www.point-spreads.com/industr...-governor.html

Link to Steve Beshear's speech in mp3
http://migration.kentucky.gov/NR/rdo...linegaming.mp3

A lot of money is spent on the racing infrastructure in Kentucky. When unrelated/unlicensed gambling sites siphon off money it directly affects the industries bottom line.

In this respect horse racing is like movie, music and content producers seeing their hard earned product pirated.

Money gambled illegally reduces the profit of racetracks, thus reducing purses offered in each race, thus reducing the value of horses, thus reducing the value of horse farms, thus reducing etc, etc, etc ......

Nice to see hard action taken on internet freeloaders.

BTW, attached was taken 10 minutes ago out my kitchen window in LEX, KY.

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d...C_0025copy.jpg


.

What a great view.