Kentucky To Ban Online Poker
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear thinks its wrong for the people in his state to make up their own mind when it comes to online gambling. Beshear is currently in the process of getting the latest nanny-state bill passed through that would block access to online poker and other gambling sites for the residents of Kentucky.
According to Forbes.com, Beshear’s administration has “asked a Franklin County Circuit Court judge to give the state control of 141 gambling Web site domain names”. On this list are many of the biggest online poker sites, including: FullTiltPoker.com, BodogLife.com, Pokerstars.com and many others.
“Unlike casinos that operate on land or on riverboats in the United States, these operations pay no tax revenues, provide no jobs and yield no tourism benefits,” Beshear said at a Capitol press conference. “They are leeches on our communities.”
His goal is to “protect the signature industry”, meaning that he is whining that the local casinos and horse racing locations are suffering due to the rise from online poker sites.
Such sites “siphon off money from regulated and legal games such as Kentucky’s thoroughbred racing industry, our lottery and charitable gaming activities,” Beshear said.
Well Steve, if this is the case, why don’t you go the route of regulating online gaming and create a state run site instead of just taking away the rights of people?
According to Point-Spreads.com, Beshear has already had two domains seized that were run by persons located in Kentucky. On their site they stated that, “Earlier today Point-Spreads.com reported that LuckyPyramidCasino.com was seized and now a second domain name HighRollersLounge.com has its administrative contact information listed as Eric Lycan from the Commonwealth of Kentucky Justice Cabinet.”
A hearing is scheduled for Thursday to see if this goes through, so in the meantime if you live in Kentucky, I’d reccomend giving your ol’ pal Steve a call to see what the hell is going on. Otherwise, poker might be banned for good in Kentucky!
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Kentucky Governor Beshear Happy with Ruling said
am October 21 2008 @ 10:09 am
[...] “I am very pleased with Judge Wingate’s ruling. The court validated our concern that there is illegal and unregulated Internet gambling in Kentucky. He has given these parties 30 days to effectively block any access to this illegal activity within [...]
Chad said
am October 22 2008 @ 10:55 am
That is a load of crap!!! Taking away our rights as citizens of Kentucky. I have been playing online poker for 5 yrs now and now i have to quit playing it because beshear can’t get any money from it. Hey I got an idea how about you regulate it so you can tax it and get your money that way. and to think i voted for this guy. Casinos yes it goes straight into his pocket, online no because he doesn’t get a piece of the pie.
Bad decision Beshear. Let Citizens of Ky vote on it and then we will see
garrett said
am October 23 2008 @ 4:06 pm
i have been playing poker online for four and a half years now i can’t play any,but we can play kentucky lottery what’s wrong with this picture?i thought we live in a free country
graham said
am October 25 2008 @ 10:43 am
Its really too bad that they can’t let people make their own decisions any more. We need to put an end to this whole “Nanny State” kind of mentality.
joe said
am November 9 2008 @ 5:12 pm
The corruption of the government is an ongoing issue.
The state brought in the lottery under the guise of funding education in the state of KY. (what a joke)
We have children graduating high school reading on a third grade level, can’t even do long division and don’t know thier multiplication tables. Our local schools have eliminated art from thier schedules, music eliminated due to lack of funding from the state.
My company pays out several million for education. The lottery brings in how many millions???? Bashear is a corrupt official obviously getting big kick backs from private interest groups to block online gambling. Why? Because he is pushing for legalized land based casinos in KY. He has lost so far but is trying every way possible to advance HIS cause. his concern is not for the people of Kentucky but for his own self serving interest and of those lining his pockets. BAD BASHEAR! BAD! (unfortunately he is not much different than any other politician in the U.S. - Wish US luck — Signed losing our freedoms
Jeremy said
am November 13 2008 @ 3:53 pm
I do not live in KY, but I do play poker online. This proposed legislation is just 1 step closer to us (Americans as a whole) slowly, yet steadily, losing our personal rights and freedoms. We CANNOT let fuckers like Beshear dictate such legislation. People in KY - call your local gov’t officials and tell them how you feel about it. If enough people complain, something must come from it.