China Seizes Control of Major US Gambling Domain Names

Imagine if the Las Vegas Sands, the Wynn Hotel and Casino, the Mirage, and several other major American gambling brands had their websites seized by the Chinese government.

Imagine if China did not just deny their citizens the right to visit these sites, but also filed a governmental decree that demanded registrars hand over control of the domain names of these major US companies.

Now imagine that China was successful in gaining control of those domain names, and imagine that those companies did not have a land based presence. They would have seen their entire company gone. Stolen by the Chinese government. Their stocks would crash. Their stock holders would lose millions and thousands of American workers would be out of jobs.

Now, imagine that this was not China doing it to American companies, but America doing it to foreign companies.

That is exactly the situation we have found ourselves in with the latest action by a relatively insignificant American state.

Pro-gambling Kentucky governor, Steve Beshear, in order to protect his land based casino interests, has gone through the US District Court to file an order to seize control of 141 foreign online gambling websites.

Beshear is getting away with this action because if a foreign company goes through a site like GoDaddy.com in order to buy its domain name, the domain name will thus have been registered in the US. Even though the servers and company offices are located in other countries, the registrars must obey American court orders.

Imagine the outrage if China did this to American companies. Imagine the sanctions. Imagine the talks. Imagine the demands and hyperbole that would be spewed by the American government and media machines.

The US claims that international citizens still respect US government and its people, but actions like these do nothing but further perpetuate the idea that the American government is oppressive, while proving that the American citizens are to blame for not being outraged by such actions to the point where they make their politicians change.

September 26, 2008
Posted By Bob Hartman
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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