Kentucky Promotes Protectionism, Breaks WTO Rules With Gambling Case Decision

Judge Thomas Wingate, who ruled on the Steve Beshear powered online gambling domain name seizure case in Kentucky, has claimed that Internet sites must follow US and international laws; meanwhile his ruling only reinforces a WTO decision that states the US is breaking international protectionism laws by banning offshore sites from providing gambling services to US citizens online.

In Kentucky it is legal to gamble online. It is legal to gamble online if you are betting on horses or lotteries. However, Kentucky's governor, Steve Beshear, does not want to allow world-wide companies to offer those same entertainment services to its citizens.

He even bluntly says that his motivation is protectionism... "We must," he says, "protect... our legal and regulated forms of gaming in Kentucky."

The WTO, through a case brought against the US by the tiny island nation of Antigua claiming that the US is protecting its companies while shunning offshore companies, has already ruled in favor Antigua (multiple times). The basis of these rulings comes from the fact that American states actually do allow gambling online, as long as the gambling solely benefits in-state companies.

As a result of the case Antigua was granted the right to suspend copyright laws for selling pirated copies of music, software, and movies. Antigua has not yet implemented these permissions and is currently in harsh negotiations with the US in order to avoid such unusual and harmful repercussions.

"The Internet," Judge Wingate states in his ruling, "with all its benefits and advantages to modern day commerce and life, is still not above the law, whether on an international or municipal level."

Unfortunately for the online gambling community, the Internet community, and the world-wide community as a whole, Judge Wingate conveniently overlooked international law, while stating that those same laws he overlooked must not be broken.

This is only one bucket of fuel that this Kentucky online gambling case will throw onto the fire of the debate over Internet censorship. One of the most scary aspects of this decision is that this sets precedent for China, the UK, India, South Africa, or any other country in the world to seize the domain of any site they choose if that site may happen to be breaking a specific country's laws.

This is a very scary decision and the future of the Internet, and perhaps the world, is at stake.

October 17, 2008
Posted By Bob Hartman
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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