In a case reminiscent of the old schoolyard taunt, “You snooze, you lose,” the United States Government filed a motion this week to strike both the claim and counterclaim to several online poker domain names issued by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. You can read the motion here.

Assistant United States Attorneys Sharon Cohen Levin, Michael Lockard, and Jason Cowley filed the motion and supporting “Memorandum of Law” in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York on behalf of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, the lead attorney in the Black Friday cases.

The issue at hand goes back to 2008, when the Commonwealth of Kentucky filed an in rem civil action against 141 internet gambling domain names, alleging they were subject to forfeiture for offering illegal gambling to residents of the state. Now, the U.S. Government has taken aim at Kentucky over several of those domains – AbsolutePoker.com, PokerStars.com, UltimateBet.com, UB.com, and FullTiltPoker.com.

The claim and counterclaim were filed by Kentucky last year, as the Commonwealth said it was the rightful owner of the domain names based on the 2008 seizure. In the Memorandum, though, the Government stated: “Despite Kentucky’s assertion of having ‘seized’ the Poker Companies’ domain names, however, it is uncontested that Kentucky has not obtained a judgment for the domain names and has never even successfully executed its state-court seizure warrant. Indeed, the domain names were under the complete control of the Poker Companies.”

The Government continued, “Kentucky, in other words, has no ownership interest in the domain names; has never exercised possession, dominion, or control over them; and thus lacks standing to assert a claim in this action,” the attorneys added.

The Memorandum went on to discuss the Black Friday indictments, which included an Arrest Warrant in rem for the online poker domain names in question. The poker sites could not use those domain names until each one “executed a Domain Name Use Agreement with the United States prohibiting the use of each Poker Company’s domain name for further real money internet gambling in the United States.”

The U.S. Government argued that despite the fact that Kentucky filed the civil action about two-and-a-half years before the Black Friday indictments, the state “has never exercised any actual possession, dominion, or control over them.” In essence, Kentucky issued an order for seizure, but never actually seized the domain names.

Kentucky also admitted that the poker rooms continued to use their domain names up until Black Friday.

In summary, even though Kentucky filed an action to seize the domain names, it never received judgment and never actually took possession of them. It can claim what it wants, but according to the U.S. Government, Kentucky “lacks standing.” Just because Kentucky says it has a claim to those domain names doesn’t mean it actually does, especially if the sites continued to operate almost as if nothing happened.

This new action comes less than a week after Bharara filed a motion to dismiss a claim by Cardroom International against Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars alleging its growth was stunted by the unfair business practices of the two poker rooms.

Bharara, who was among Time’s Most Influential People in 2011, also filed a similar motion to dismiss another claim, a class action lawsuit by players against Full Tilt. Both motions were filed in New York Southern District Court on July 9.