Minnesota Drops Challenge to Online Gambling Sites

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

State drops plans in face of industry lawsuit.

Earlier this year Minnesota tried to force ISPs to block access to gambling web sites. The move came on the heels of a similar action from Kentucky’s governor, who tried to seize gambling domain names last year. Although the battle is still ongoing in Kentucky, Minnesota officials have thrown in the towel.

A gambling industry association sued the state, saying its plan violated federal commerce and free speech. Minnesota caved in return for Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association dropping its suit.

Both of these are examples of states trying to twist arcane laws to give their states financial benefits. By blocking online gambling, the states’ own gambling destinations could become more profitable. In the Kentucky case, the governor argued that domain names are “gambling devices”.

Although the online community has won the battle in Minnesota, you can expect similar challenges in the future.

Further Reading:

  1. Minnesota Wants to Block Gambling Domain Names
  2. Google AdSense to Start Displaying Gambling Ads
  3. Gambling domains out-of-favor

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2 Comments » - Posted in Policy & Law by

Comments

  1. Latest Domainer News
    June 11th, 2009 | 2:13 pm

    Minnesota Drops Challenge to Online Gambling Sites – http://tinyurl.com/mndlkv

  2. mr kentucky laptop repair
    June 11th, 2009 | 9:02 pm

    Being from Kentucky, I am embarrassed by our lawsuit. Hopefully, Kentucky will give up the lawsuit soon.

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