Washington, DC (January 21, 2009) – John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide, today issued the following statement regarding the appeal filed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in light of yesterday’s ruling by the state court of appeals overturning a lower court decision allowing the Commonwealth to seize Internet gambling domain names.

Louisville, Kentucky (January 20, 2009) – The Kentucky Court of Appeals today issued a ruling prohibiting the Franklin Circuit Court from enforcing its seizure order against the 141 domain names in the domain seizure case. The Court found that Internet domain names do not constitute a gambling device under Kentucky law and that the Franklin County Circuit Court clearly erred in concluding that the domain names can be construed to be gambling devices subject to forfeiture.

A July court decision affecting the gaming compact between Governor Florida Charlie Crist and the Seminole Tribe of Florida has caused the tribal casinos to delay adding table games to some of their gambling menus. Actually, the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida, began dealing blackjack and other card games in June. But in July, the Florida Supreme Court invalidated the gaming compact that allowed all Seminole casinos to operate like a Las Vegas-styled casino.

Online sportsbetting provider Betfair has files suit in the Federal Court of Australia challenging the validity of decisions by Racing New South Wales and Harness Racing New South Wales to impose a 1.5 % turnover fee on all wagering operators that cover thoroughbred and harness races in the state. Betfair alleges that the fee constitutes discriminatory conduct in interstate trade and commerce under Section 92 of the Australian Constitution.

The Spanish Courts has committed to analyze the online betting regulation- in which there is a legal void-, after a meeting between Minister Mariano Fernández Bermejo and President of Miguel Carballeda. According to ONCE sources, Carballeda has insisted in the need to regulate illegal games of chance performed by some associations, as well as Internet games. In 2007, illegal games of chance generated 150 million euros...

Toto-Lotto Niedersachsen, the state lottery of Lower Saxony, has been told that it can no longer advertise its products via the internet by the Higher Regional Court of Oldenburg. The verdict cites the German State Treaty on Gambling which prohibits advertising of gambling over the Internet and television. The advertisement in question appeared on the company’s website and depicted a swimming pool, palm trees and deck chairs, with a caption reading...

In four judgments rendered in main proceedings, the 1st chamber of the Administrative Court of Freiburg (Verwaltungsgericht Freiburg) just recently declared the state sports betting monopoly to be in breach of Community law and revoked prohibition orders issued by the Regional Council of Karlsruhe (decisions of 16 April 2008, file-no. K 2683/07, 1 K 2063/06, 1 K 2066/06 and 1 K 2052/06). The 3rd chamber of the Administrative Court of Freiburg has now joined this legal opinion in summary proceedings.

Santo Domingo - The Supreme Court upheld the expulsion of the Canadian owner of the San Gerónimo Hotel’s casino, Iván Cech, after determining that the Executive Branch’s measure hadn’t violated the Constitution. The court’s ruling also dismisses a challenge on grounds of unconstitutionality against the decision issued May 11, 2006, by a National District judge who ordered Cech’s arrest and confiscation of all his assets on May 24 that year.

Wettbewerbszentrale (Centre for Protection against Unfair Competition) recently won a court suit in the second instance against the Free State of Bavaria who offers sports betting and games of chance commercially via its State Lottery Administration (Staatliche Lotterieverwaltung), which is a member of Deutscher Lotto- und Totoblock, the cartel of the monopoly operators. The Court of Appeal of Munich (Oberlandesgericht München) enjoined the Free State of Bavaria from unfair advertisements with regard to three different circumstances.

The Administrative Court of Berlin (Verwaltungsgericht Berlin) has once again expressed fundamental constitutional objections against the Interstate Treaty on Gambling (Glücksspiel-Staatsvertrag) and thus granted relief from judicial execution to a sports betting agent (decision of 5 May 2008, case-no. VG 35 A 108.08). The agent, represented by ARENDTS ANWÄLTE (www.gaminglaw.de), may thus continue to transfer sports bets to a private bookmaker, state licensed in Malta, an EU member state.

After numerous decisions on sports betting the European Court of Justice may now deal with the admissibility of a casino monopoly. The Austrian County Court of Linz (Landesgericht Linz) recently referred several fundamental questions for preliminary ruling to the ECJ (Case no. C-64/08 - Engelmann). The ECJ's decision could well throw into disarray the current licensing system for casinos in Austria and could be of fundamental importance for other Member States as well. The County Court of Linz referred the following questions for preliminary ruling:

Hong Kong (Reuters) - Macau's SJM Holdings, the casino flagship of tycoon Stanley Ho, overcame a last-minute hurdle to listing on the Hong Kong stock market when a court ruled on Wednesday against a case disputing the deal. Stanley Ho's sister, Winnie Ho, had sought a judicial review in Hong Kong's high court of regulatory decisions allowing the scaled-back USD 494 million initial public offering of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) Holdings Ltd to proceed.