So many socio-political hot-spots right now you’d think the 2010 WSOP were being played in the Paktika region of Afghanistan. Poker’s legal quandaries keep growing … as the industry’s longtime adversaries in Kentucky have filed suit against Pocket Kings, the alleged dba for Full Tilt.
Here’s the actual complaint, filed two weeks ago in Franklin Circuit Court. You’ll see they spell out a host of alleged infractions by Full Tilt according to Kentucky state law against the citizens of Kentucky. And thus, they’re seeking to have all rake and player losses refunded.
They’re also calling out the company and its principals in harsh terms, saying Full Tilt is based on a series of shell companies to conceal their identities and avoid legal responsibilities, and labels Full Tilt defendants as “shams” and “alteregos” of each other and different individuals. We’re guessing they don’t have much case law on the role of avatars and multiaccounting Terms of Service agreements in poker. No word on whether or not Joan Rivers will be called to testify.
They’ve named other sites as well as having committed the same alleged crimes — including Doyles Room, Ultimate Bet, PokerStars, TruePoker, and more than 100 others. This way, should they win their case against Full Tilt, they’d be able to apply the same ruling to all these other online poker entities upon identifying who they are.
This is all happening as the Kentucky Court of Appeals considers arguments claiming that Imega has no standing to represent online poker defendants any more than NAMBLA would have standing to represent Catholic priests.
But lest you think the state of Kentucky is simply anti-poker, next month is the Derby Poker Championship — “Go All-In for Kids and the Climate” — an event hosted by Phil Hellmuth, Robert Williamson, III, and Denny Crum. Perhaps even more fascinating are the sponsors: Jim Beam (wouldn’t the WSOP kill for that relationship?), TwinSpires.com (Kentucky’s ready-to-go online gambling site), and UB.net.
