It’s back. Just when you thought that Black Friday ended the quest of Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown (pictured) to seize the dot-com domain names belonging to PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, UB, and Absolute Poker, a document filed in recent days reasserted the state’s claim to the URLs. Now, additional legal action will be needed in the Commonwealth.You’ll remember that the case, which involved the Commonwealth of Kentucky seizing 141 internet gambling dot-com domain names, was sent back to the trial court to determine standing. On one side is Brown, Kentucky’s figurehead by virtue of the fact that the state’s Attorney General disassociated himself from the case. On the other side of the coin is the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA), which is seeking to establish associational standing.
Irate on Thursday was iMEGA Chairman Joe Brennan (pictured), who told PocketFives.com, “This is their lawyers asserting their claim that they own the domain names, and they don’t. The only thing that’s happened so far is that the court has issued a seizure notice. There has been no hearing regarding forfeiture or anything like that. There has been no due process to say that Kentucky owns the domain names.”Kentucky’s filing asserted that the Commonwealth is “the true and bona fide sole owner of the property and entitled to possession, and that no other person is the owner of or entitled to possession of the property. The Commonwealth states that it is the owner of the domain names by virtue of its prior seizure of said domain names.” The document was filed in response to the ongoing Department of Justice case against PokerStars, Full Tilt, and UB.
Brennan and iMEGA must now head back to court after submitting a response by October 13th. He charged, “Kentucky’s motion shows just how scabrous a bunch of ambulance chasers the Plaintiff’s attorneys are.” Full Tilt, one of the three companies affected by Kentucky’s action, recently agreed to sell its assets to Groupe Bernard Tapie. What Tapie would be acquiring, which could include FullTiltPoker.com, has not been announced.
The original legal action in Kentucky came about in September 2008, when the Commonwealth argued that it wanted to protect its residents from offshore gaming interests. In mid-2010, Kentucky attorneys filed suit against Full Tilt Poker, seeking “the amount of money lost between March 25, 2005 and September 25, 2009 by persons located within the borders of Kentucky.”
Brennan told PocketFives.com that Black Friday, which resulted in all four sites targeted by the Commonwealth exiting the U.S. market, should essentially have made the case moot: “These sites aren’t servicing the U.S. market anymore, so what do they want? This is just about the Plaintiff’s attorneys trying to get money. There’s no justice being netted out here. There’s no long-term interest of protecting the gambling interests of Kentucky. The Kentucky market is protected, which is what they originally set out to do.”Brennan added that Kentucky’s lawyers, who are purportedly working on a contingency fee basis (meaning they only get paid with a settlement), have trampled on due process: “Throughout the entire process, all of the filings that the Kentucky Plaintiff’s attorneys have made have shown a remarkably ignorant grasp of the law, internet gambling, and due process. I’m not surprised that they filed this. This is simply about getting money.”
Among the questions that could be raised at a hearing on the matter is the value of Full Tilt Poker’s domain name. Groupe Bernard Tapie has expressed a desire to keep the Full Tilt brand name going forward; however, the site has been dragged through the wringer ever since its gaming license was suspended back in June. FullTiltPoker.com could essentially be “worthless.”
Brennan closed by saying, “As long as Kentucky isn’t paying for it, they’re more than happy to let them use their name and Secretary Brown’s office to pursue this case. Secretary Brown is content to whore out the Commonwealth of Kentucky and his office in order for the Plaintiff’s attorneys to pursue a contingency fee settlement that they have no chance of ever receiving.”Stay tuned to PocketFives.com for the latest from the Bluegrass State.
