September 23, 2008 — According to several sites throughout the Internet today, the U.S. State of Kentucky has just launched a civil case against a number of domain names that they deem to be gambling-oriented.
The 141 named domains have been commandeered by a Kentucky circuit judge, Thomas Wingate. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader: "If officials get their way at a Sept. 25 forfeiture hearing, the state will control the domain names and can ask Web registrars to block access to the sites."
According to legal experts cited in the article, this would make Kentucky the first state to seize a gambling operators' domain names.
"He [Kentucy Justice and Public Safety Secretary J. Michael Brown] acknowledged that such a move could block access to the domains worldwide, but said he was interested only in its effect on Kentucky," states the Herald-Ledger article.
Also according to the article the move is an effort by the state to enforce UIGEA, which was enacted in 2006 but has not yet been fully enforced due to various complications in the bill's structure.
Get more details on the case from this article on the Herald-Ledger website. A copy of the court order, including a list of the 141 seized domain names, can be viewed here.
Thanks to Forum user ThomasJensen for bringing this to our attention.