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Doyle’s Room to block 13 U.S. states from online poker play
We just received this bad news from Doyles Room today:
We have received notice from our poker software provider that as of Wednesday, October 29th, they will begin blocking connections from 13 U.S. states based on IP address. Therefore, we are sending an email to all those players that may be affected by this block. Below you will find a copy of this email.
Dear Player,
We have received notice from our poker software provider that as of Wednesday, October 29th, they will begin blocking connections from 13 U.S. states based on IP address.
If your internet service provider is based in one of the following 13 states, you may or may not be affected by this change:
Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Washington and Kentucky.
Blocked connections will receive an error message upon attempting to login to the poker client. Please read the Common Concerns below and if you feel your connection to the poker client is being blocked in error, please contact customer service immediately at support@dbpn.com so that we may assist you in logging into your account.
Common Concerns:
1. I am not in one of the states above will there be any difference in my connecting to the poker client?
No, your account will not be affected.
2. What is an IP address? An IP address is assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). All users of the internet are assigned an IP address. This address can be used to roughly determine the geographic location of your ISP. The address returned from a lookup of your IP address is actually the address of your ISP rather than your physical address. This discrepancy may cause some players that are not from a blocked state to appear as though they are from a blocked state.
3. I am not attempting to connect from one of the 13 states above, but I am still having problems logging into the poker client. What should I do? We apologize for this inconvenience. State lookups based on your IP address are not always accurate. Please send an email to support@dbpn.com with your login name and a brief description of your problem.
4. I am not from one of the 13 states but I am traveling to one of them. Will I be able to connect? There is a chance that you will not be able to connect if you are travelling to one of the 13 states listed above. Please contact support@dbpn.com if you are traveling through one of the states and are having a problem logging into your account.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes you and urge you to contact our 24 hour support services if you have any further questions. Click to visit our support page
- The Technical Team at DoylesRoom.com
Kentucky Boycott Advised
Online Casino Advisory senior analyst, Sherman Bradley, is pushing a major campaign urging citizens to boycott all things Kentucky, including the Churchill Downs racetrack.
From the CAP Newswire:
Dawson Springs, Kentucky (PRWEB) October 21, 2008 — Online Casino Advisory senior gaming analyst, Sherman Bradley, is calling for an immediate boycott of all gambling activity and of any purchasing of products that provide tax revenue to the state of Kentucky. He insists that the strongest show of dissent against the Kentucky governor’s action to censor the Internet is for angry citizens to stop betting at Churchill Downs this season.
The Kentucky Churchill Downs’ season runs from October 26th through November 29th. Bradley is doing media interviews and is getting the word out to citizens of Kentucky urging them to avoid visiting Churchill Downs when it opens up.
At the Online Casino Advisory website Bradley states, “We ask all who are upset by the Kentucky court case refrain from attending the race track season. Let Beshear and the industry he wishes to protect see how misguided his attack is, and how angry citizens are.”
Judge Thomas Wingate, the Franklin County Circuit Court judge residing over the case (08-CI-01409 JUSTICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY CABINET, VS. 140 INTERNET DOMAINS -Franklin County Circuit Court), refused to dismiss Beshear’s order for the state to seize control of the 140 Internet domain names.
Bradley, as well as many members of the gambling industry, as well as many prominent figures of the Internet community, have expressed outrage and fear over Steve Beshear’s successful actions to seize control of the gambling domain names. As Beshear puts it, “these sites deprive the Commonwealth of millions in revenue.”
Opponents of the governor’s actions claim this ruling could lead the country down a slippery slope to complete Internet censorship.
“The general public is viewing Beshear’s actions as not only unprecedented, but as fascist …. It is on par with something China would do,” Bradley opined.
“We at Online Casino Advisory are calling for a boycott by all gamblers, civil libertarians, and concerned protectors of the Internet of all products of Kentucky, or anything that produces Kentucky tax revenue. Until Beshear lifts his fascist order, every effort must be made to hurt the state’s coffers,” Bradley said.
Bradley is calling on news website owners, major media outlets, and those in his industry to promote this boycott. The Poker Players Alliance, which claims to have 15,000 members in Kentucky, could be crucial to the success of this protest. Bradley insists that the PPA get involved and advise their members to boycott Kentucky products.
According to Bradley, “The more that all the people who are appalled at Beshear’s Internet censorship, and what I believe to be a violation of the Constitution, let him know that his actions will be met with reaction, the sooner he realizes his mistakes.”
Bradley also noted that Beshear won election by campaigning for legalized gambling. According to Bradly his opponent, incumbent Governor Ernie Fletcher, voiced many of the same social ills arguments Beshear has recently discovered. Fletcher lost, 59 percent to 41 percent. Bradley concludes, “So much for the Governor valuing the will of the people.”
Kentucky Decision Finally Handed Down
From today’s CAP Newswire:
October 17, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — After a day of computer glitches, Judge Thomas Wingate finally handed down his decision late afternoon Thursday in a Kentucky court … but there was scant comfort for the online gambling industry in his findings, or for the lawyers representing interested parties in the case, in which the state of Kentucky sought to seize 141 international domain names.
Strong arguments presented by various bodies and companies impacted by the Kentucky action in seeking to have the case dismissed ranged from a lack of jurisdiction on the part of the state and debate on the definition of the phrase “gambling device” to the legal standing of those contesting the order and whether poker is a game of skill, luck or both.
Judge Wingate placed emphasis on the state’s call for the owners of the domains to be identified, and refused to grant the motions by legal representatives to dismiss the Kentucky case because they had not specifically identified the owners of the domains in question, which included Players Only.com, Poker Host.com, SB Global.com, Sportsbook.com, Sports Interaction.com, My Sportsbook.com, and Lines Maker.com.
The judge also specifically addressed the issue of Internet freedom in the conclusion to his judgement, saying:
“We note that Opposing Groups and Lawyers argue any judicial interference of the Internet will create havoc. The doomsday argument does not ruffle the Court. The Internet, 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.”
In short, Judge Wingate’s controversial findings dismissed virtually all the arguments against the state of Kentucky’s initiative and ruled that the owners of the websites — other than those sites that are used only for advertising or information and not gambling — start blocking access to Kentucky residents. The Judge gave the companies and individuals concerned 30 days to implement such a block, failing which a forfeiture hearing will take place at 10.30am on November 17 in which the domains could be confiscated.
Those companies that institute the block will not be further pursued and may retain control of their domains.
The ruling raises serious practical considerations regarding the introduction of effective geo-blocking and the actual mechanics of taking control of domains situated outside of the state, and the ruling will inevitably be the subject of appeals on various grounds.
Lawyers for the affected sites, which include industry giants like Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars, Bodog, Golden Palace, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, Cake Poker, Doyle’s Room and River Belle, have been told that the sites must “reasonably establish to the satisfaction of the Kentucky’s Justice and Safety Cabinet or this Court that such geographical blocks are operational” as a precondition for being relieved from the effects of the seizure order and from any further proceedings in the civil forfeiture action, Judge Wingate wrote in his 43-page ruling.
The state’s Justice and Public Safety Cabinet said it was still studying the judge’s findings and its responsibilities thereunder. “We’re still going through the ruling,” said Jennifer Brislin, communications director for the state department. “If all these sites block access they’ll be free from forfeiture. Otherwise, there will be a forfeiture hearing.”
“I don’t know what the procedure for [geo-blocking] verification will be yet,” Brislin added.
The November 17 hearings are likely to be equally contentious as legal representatives argue their cases further and perhaps seek leave to appeal. One argument which the judge has already indicated he is willing to entertain concerns the use of the domains for purposes other than gambling per se.
Golden Palace lawyers argued that the firm’s domains targeted in the Kentucky action were purely for advertising and information and did not facilitate actual gambling, and the judge appeared to broadly agree that these domains could be deleted from the seizure list on November 17 if representations were made.
Perhaps the most contentious issue is the judge’s ruling that Kentucky has jurisdiction in the case despite the out-of-state nature of all the domains involved.
Professor Joseph Kelly, a respected legal academic with extensive knowledge of U.S. gambling law, opined that state courts will usually try to establish their jurisdiction, but that affected gambling websites have options. These include compliance with the court’s ruling, further argument in the forfeiture hearing, appealing Judge Wingate’s findings, and taking the state of Kentucky to a federal court citing interstate commerce objections.
The Poker Players Alliance, which submitted a brief as a friend of the court, immediately criticized the judge’s decision. Executive director John Pappas said: “Clearly, we believe the judge in this case got it wrong.
“First of all, we strongly disagree with Judge Wingate’s ruling that poker is not a game of skill. As demonstrated in the amicus brief we filed, skill plays an essential role in being a successful poker player. Additionally, we believe that by confirming Governor Beshear’s actions, the court has set a dangerous precedent for censorship of the Internet. Today’s ruling is a big step backward for both personal rights and Internet freedom.
“We are confident that the Kentucky Appellate Court will review the facts and overturn today’s order.”
Rich Muny, Kentucky State Director of the Alliance, opined that many of the plaintiffs who had submitted briefs in the case would appeal the decision.
The personal freedom group Bluegrass Institute’s Public Policy and Communications Director Jim Waters expressed outrage following the decision, and accused Kentucky’s governor of hypocrisy, pointing to his support for other extensive Internet and land gambling activities within the state.
Joe Brennan Jr., chairman of iMEGA, which had presented strong arguments against the domain seizure, also expressed disappointment with Judge Wingate’s ruling.
“This decision must not be allowed to stand, because of the threat it poses to the Internet as a whole,” he said. “Judge Wingate has ignored the clear laws of his own state in coming to a decision that essentially green-lights any jurisdiction — in the U.S. and abroad — to ignore our rights and abuse their power to do away with competition or speech or content with which they oppose, regardless of the law. This is a dark day for Internet freedom.” He added that the iMEGA legal team will prepare a challenge to the ruling, taking it before state and if necessary federal courts.
Judge allows gambling Web site case to proceed
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – A Franklin County Circuit Court judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to block access to online casinos in Kentucky.
Judge Thomas Wingate said in an order Thursday afternoon that he will hear arguments on Nov. 17 before deciding whether to give Kentucky state government control of the domain names of 140 of the Internet’s most popular gambling Web sites.
Wingate said online casinos that don’t block access to their Web sites in Kentucky could be ordered to forfeit their domain names.
Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration filed the lawsuit. Beshear supports legalizing casino gambling in a state that already allows betting on horse racing, bingo and a state lottery.
Computer Problems Lead to Kentucky Domain Case Delay
There will be no decision Wednesday to determine if some 141 online gambling domains are to be seized by the commonwealth of Kentucky.
Much of the Internet gambling sector awaited news all day Wednesday after circuit court Judge Thomas Wingate determined he would need until October 15 to render a decision.
A decision is expected as soon as Thursday morning.
Last month, a Judge Wingate granted a request by the governor to have 141 Web site names used by online gaming operations transferred to the state’s control. The action was filed by a Chicago law firm on behalf of Gov. Steve Beshear (D), who was elected in part on the strength of a promise to bring casino gambling to the state.
The domains include some of the most popular online gaming sites on the Internet, including UltimateBet.com and FullTiltPoker.com.
GoDaddy.com, the world’s largest domain registrar, was one of those that turned over to the commonwealth the certificate for a handful of domains including Cake Poker and Doyles Room. What happens to these domains will depend on a decision to be handed down by the judge.
Christine Jones, general counsel for GoDaddy.com, the registrar used by 20 of the 141 domains named in the judge’s order, told the Washington Post the company tried to walk a line between complying with that demand and defending the rights of their customers, noting that the casino site owners did not have an opportunity to present their side of the case at the hearing in which the judge ordered the transfer of the domains.
Sources close to Gambling911 have indicated that the Judge has been studying this matter extensively and realizes the global ramifications that stretch far beyond his jurisdiction.
—–
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
BoDog loses domain name appeal and now owes $50 million
1st Technology , LLC today received an affirmance of last year’s rejection of all attempts to set aside the judgment against Bodog.com, Bodog.net, and Bodog Entertainment Group S.A.
Judgment was entered against the Bodog entities on June 13, 2007, in the amount of $46,597,849. Despite a vigorous appeal by Bodog’s counsel, Bodog’s attempts to overturn the ruling from the District Court of Nevada’s Judge Hunt were fruitless, and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today affirmed the lower court’s ruling. With interest, the amount due 1st Technology from Bodog now exceeds $50 million.
1st Technology’s CEO Dr. Scott Lewis emphasized the importance of the ruling, stating, “We cannot be more pleased. Bodog has consistently tried to circumvent the United States justice system, and disregarded the legitimacy of our claims against it. We now have the certainty we need to accelerate our seizure of any and all global assets to satisfy the judgment, and bring fairness and respect back to Bodog’s commercial dealings. I am also pleased that those companies operating in the U.S. or serving U.S. customers via the Internet are not above the law.”
The Chicago-based law firm of Flachsbart & Greenspoon, LLC won the appeal for 1st Technology in Appeal No. 2008-1132.
Today’s affirmance follows a victory in the District of Western Washington last Friday. The Court granted significant parts of a preliminary injunction to halt any transactions or transfers of Bodog’s trademarks. The co-pending lawsuit in Washington seeks (among other claims) to undo conveyances among defendants Bodog Entertainment Group S.A., Bodog IP Holdings Ltd., and GK World Link Telecom S.A. Both Flachsbart & Greenspoon and Venkat Balasubramani represent 1st Technology in Case No. 08-CV-872 in the Western District of Washington.
Doyles Room, UltimateBet.com Online Poker Domains Still Up And Running… For now.
Judge Thomas Wingate of the Franklin Circuit Courtroom ruled on Tuesday that until he finalizes his decision, the commonwealth must leave a number of online poker and casino sites “as is”. This means they will stay live.
Gambling911.com reported Monday night that the world’s largest registrar – GoDaddy.com – had relinquished certificates for a number of online poker sites including CakePoker.com, UltimateBet.com and DoylesRoom.com to the commonwealth of Kentucky as part of a seizure order brought on by Governor Steve Beshear.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Wingate ruled that the commonwealth would not shut off the GoDaddy registered sites until his ruling was rendered by next Wednesday.
Much of the online poker community had been deeply concerned over developments in the past 12 hours related to the most recent seizures.
Network Solutions refused to roll over, however. Tim Highland of Stein Sperling represented one of the world’s oldest registrars performed brilliantly, explaining why a domain name could not be considered “property” as the commonwealth was alleging.
The Network Solutions attorney disclosed that the registrar had several online gambling companies among its clients.
“If anything, the online gambling site itself should be seized, not the domain,” Highland argued.
Slot Machine Operator to Go After PartyGaming for $287 Million
The ruling is welcome news to a team of lawyers including, from Atlanta, Kilpatrick Stockton partner Theodore H. Davis Jr. and associate Louise T. Rains. They represented WMS Gaming of Waukegan, Ill., against Gibraltar-based PartyGaming PLC — which did not show up to contest the case, claiming the U.S. has no jurisdiction.
WMS sued PartyGaming in 2006, claiming that the foreign company’s use of the names “Jackpot Party” and “Super Jackpot Party” on its Internet games infringed trademarks WMS had registered for its machines as far back as 1997.
When PartyGaming defaulted, WMS asked a federal judge in Illinois to award it $287 million — all of the profits PartyGaming made for 2004, 2005 and 2006 from its U.S. operations — under federal trademark laws allowing a mark-holder to demand “an equitable accounting of profits” from an infringer.
WMS claimed it was entitled to all of PartyGaming’s U.S. profits for those years, even from games not in violation of its marks. Under §35 of the Lanham Act, which governs trademark law, a winning plaintiff is entitled “to recover (1) defendant’s profits, (2) any damages sustained by the plaintiff, and (3) the costs of the action.”
Because PartyGaming never provided any breakdown of its profits from noninfringing games or offered any evidence why there should be an offset for business or other expenses, WMS argued, it should turn over all of its profits from the years it was in violation.
But U.S. District Judge Blanche Manning of Illinois’ Northern District instead awarded what she calculated as a “reasonable” estimate of WMS’ actual damages from the infringement — $2.6 million — itself based upon WMS’ own estimated actual damages from 2004, which the judge simply multiplied by three.
But on Sept. 8, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with WMS’ position, sending the case back to Manning and ordering the lower court to revise its order.
PartyGaming — which never entered an appearance during the proceedings, and is also under a contempt order — forfeited its right to contest WMS’ showing of its profits, wrote the appeals court.
“Courts consistently find that when a trademark plaintiff offers evidence of infringing and the infringer fails to carry its statutory burden to offer evidence of deductions, the plaintiff’s entitlement to profits under the Lanham Act is equal to the infringer’s gross sales,” wrote the court.
The court also noted a 1916 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Hamilton-Brown Shoe Co. v. Wolf Bros. & Co., in which the Court addressed a trademark infringement case where it was difficult to ascertain “what proportion of the profit is due to the trademark, and what to the intrinsic value of the commodity.” In that case, the Court wrote, “it is more consistent with reason and justice that the owner of the trademark should have the whole profit than that he should be deprived of any part of it by the fraudulent act of the defendant.”
Working with Raines and Davis — who argued the case — was a team of lawyers from Chicago’s Loeb & Loeb. Davis referred questions to Jeffrey Michel, WMS’ executive director of licensing and gaming, who said there was ample reason to think the judgment would be satisfied.
“I’m expecting that we will get the full amount, and I am not expecting PartyGaming to put in an appearance,” he said.
Even if the foreign gambling company does attempt to enter the case at this late date, he added, “the evidentiary segment has been closed, and I don’t foresee any reduction in that amount.”
Michel declined comment when asked whether PartyGaming had any U.S. assets that could be seized, or whether there was any other strategy in place to force the company to comply.
In response to a query, PartyGaming’s director of corporate communications, John Shepherd, provided an e-mailed statement: “This issue is about jurisdiction. PartyGaming has never had any physical assets located in the US but is perfectly prepared to defend the merits of this claim in the appropriate jurisdiction. The Co. has made this point repeatedly to WMS. Both WMS’s claims and the remedy it seeks are without foundation and justification.”
Despite the loss in the 7th Circuit, PartyGaming’s jurisdictional argument succeeded in a separate case. On Tuesday, a 2006 class-action suit in which online gamblers claimed the company allowed other players to collude in order to cheat unsuspecting players, was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich of the Northern District of Ohio. She ruled that the dispute should more properly be heard in Gibraltar.
PartyGaming, which claims to be the largest online gambling company in the world, reported revenues of $254.8 million in the first six months of this year. Prior to 2007, the company’s profits were largely gleaned from U.S.-based customers, but in late 2006 Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which effectively ended the ability of online betting companies to do business here.
The company is one of several that are reported to be under continuing investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for illegally accepting bets prior to the enforcement of the UIGEA in late 2006. Last month its executive director told a British newspaper that settlement talks with the DOJ are continuing.
Greg Land, Fulton County Daily Report
News Analysis: Kentucky Seizures have all the Markings of a Farce
Already defunct websites and a dead operator seem to have escaped the attention of lawyers working on a contingency basis
September 26, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — With more information coming in on the incredible spectacle of the Democrat governor of the U.S. state of Kentucky trying to confiscate domain names from international operators, the Kentucky seizures are increasingly taking on the appearance of a farce.
U.S. media are reporting that the lawyers who put together the domain list and legal argument for Governor Steve Beshear were engaged on outsourced contingency agreements — no win, no pay.
And those same lawyers seem to know little if anything of the online gambling industry, with some reports claiming that as much as 30 percent of the seized domains are out of action and have been for some time. In two cases — High Rollers Lounge.com and Lucky Pyramid Casino.com – the seized domains have been offline for months following the death of the owner-operator, Warren Cloud, who’s group has since been taken over and re-branded by the Virtual Casino group.
Kentucky’s Justice Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown showed his lack of knowledge when he said the state did not shut down the sites. “At this point in time, I don’t know why they are shut down, but it’s not pursuant to our actions,” he said. The most inexperienced online player-detective could have sussed the position out with a little elementary digging.
Today’s hearing, in which Judge Wingate will decide whether the seizures are to be made permanent, is likely to be a crowded affair, as a number of interested parties are sending high-powered legal teams to object to the Kentucky action.
The freedom of the Internet pressure group iMEGA has already announced that it is sending a top legal team to object, as has Go Daddy, a domain registrar impacted by the Kentucky moves. GoDaddy.com has been contacted by companies that registered some of the domain names in question, and they plan to file an objection to the court order, said Christine Jones, GoDaddy.com’s general counsel, in a statement.
The non-profit Internet Commerce Association, which represents domain-name investors and developers, has called the move a “dangerous precedent” in a statement on its website. “It appears that there may be no statutory basis for this unprecedented action, that Kentucky may lack sufficient jurisdictional grounds, and that it also may violate the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution,” association President Jeremiah Johnston said in a statement.
Justice Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown expects some heavy opposition, and revealed overnight that the hearing, which was originally set for Thursday but postponed a further 24 hours, was rescheduled to allow defendants more time to find local attorneys.
If Judge Wingate orders the domain names to be forfeited to the state on Friday afternoon, Kentucky will notify registrars of the order and take control of the at present only temporarily seized domain names, “subject to anybody filing some sort of objection.”
Brown said the state of Kentucky’s strategy in seizing the domains is to force online gambling operators into settlement talks, compelling them to block Kentucky users from their websites and pay damages in exchange for the state returning control of the sites to them. If they refuse, Kentucky could block access to the sites by users across the world, Brown claimed.
But that strategy could backfire and lead to extensive litigation. Andrew Allemann, a domain-name industry expert from Texas, said that opposition could come from freedom of speech and Internet protagonists and not just the online gambling industry.
“I’d say (the governor) has underestimated the expense of this battle, and he’s also underestimated the backlash,” he said. Allemann expressed serious doubts that Governor Beshear will ultimately be successful in his lawsuit, although he acknowledged that serious damage to business could be inflicted if websites are shut down even temporarily or have to be re-branded and re-marketed.
In another surprising revelation, Governor Beshear’s spokesman Jay Blanton said private attorneys were engaged to work the case for the state on a contingency basis of no win, no pay.
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