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Online Casino News
Minnesota mandates block of online casino websites
April 30, 2009
In an attempt to block some of the best online casinos gambling websites from residents of the state, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety Alcohol and Gaming Division has implored 11 national and regional ISPs to disallow computers from the state from entering just about 200 online gambling websites.
In an dispatch made this past Wednesday, the AGED revealed written statement of this solicitation has been gave out to Embarq, AT&T Internet Services, Frontier Communications, Charter Communications, Comcast Cable, Qwest, Direct TV, Sprint/Nextel, Dish Network, Verizon Wireless and Wild-blue Communications.
The AGED claims the Wire Act of 1961 provides Minnesota law enforcement agencies with the authorization to perform this solicitation, and that ISPs will be given 2-3 weeks to reciprocate. Any non-compliance will be informed to the FCC.
"The statute we're citing is civil," AGED Director John Willems discerned "We're not seeking to criminalize. We're not seeking to prevent Internet gambling websites from doing their business where it's lawful -- we're just seeking to prevent them from doing it in Minnesota where it's unlawful. I'm only concerned about the state of Minnesota."
John Willems also added that only websites where the physical gambling took place would be thwarted and that websites that purely promote their services would not be influenced.
Once questioned why AGED was aspiring to block online
internet gambling websites from residents, Willems avowed that there was not a big communal propel for this action and aforesaid this was a intuitive progress of Minnesota's ideology that Internet gambling is outlawed.
"Internet gambling is unlawful in Minnesota," he aforesaid. "So how do you deal with activity within the confines of our jurisdiction while understanding there's a global aspect to this?
"As the industry changed and phone companies became ISPs, and ISPs became phone companies it reached a point in time where we realized that a reasonable reading of the statute applied. Our goal is not to hurt the operators in their lawful operations. Furthermore, the technology has grown to the point where it's a fairly straight forward process."
While the technology might be tolerably straight forward, the juridical underpinnings of the state's effort aren't ineluctably that cut and dry, claims gambling law attorney Clarke Walton.
"They're most likely not within their rights based on decisions that have said the Wire Act applies only to sports betting and not other casino games like slot machines and certainly not poker," aforesaid Walton, who is stationed in Las Vegas.
The Poker Player's Alliance in addition delivered a forceful defiance to the constitutionality of AGED's comportment.
"This isn't simply a heavy-handed tactic by the government," aforesaid Matt Werden, the Minnesota state director of the Poker Players Alliance. "This is a clear misrepresentation of federal law, as well as Minnesota law, used in an unprecedented way to try and censor the Internet. I don't know what U.S. Code they're reading, but it is not illegal to play this great American pastime online, and we're calling their bluff.
"The fact is, online poker is not illegal, it's not criminal, and it cannot be forcibly blocked by a state authority looking forward to score some political points. What are they going to do when this fails, ban poker books and burn our players at the stake?"
Good Luck
From the Online Casinos USA team
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