Slots Proponent Moves To Block Minnesota's Gambling Ban

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Slots Proponent Moves To Block Minnesota’s Gambling Ban

6 May, 2009 / GamblingCompliance Ltd. / James Kilsby

A Minnesota Representative behind House moves to introduce slot machines at Minnesotan racetracks has filed a bill to prevent state gaming regulators from following through with efforts to force ISPs to block local access to gambling websites operated by international providers including Ladbrokes, William Hill, PartyGaming and Full Tilt.
Republican Representative Pat Garofalo announced the introduction of a bill on Monday that, if passed, would prevent Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) from actively forcing internet service providers to block access in Minnesota to nearly 200 ‘blacklisted’ gambling websites including casino sites operated by William Hill, PartyGaming, 32Red and Victor Chandler, as well as Full Tilt and Everest poker.

The move from Garofalo, co-author of recently filed legislation that would expand gambling at Minnesota racetracks, follows a letter sent by the DPS’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division to 11 ISPs last week which cited the US’ 1961 Federal Wire Act in demanding that access to the sites be blocked in Minnesota. Internet gambling offered by the 200-odd sites is considered illegal in Minnesota, Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division director John Willems said in his letter to ISPs including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Qwest.

Included on the accompanying list of gambling websites subject to censure in Minnesota are the .com casino sites operated by Ladbrokes, William Hill, Victor Chandler, 32Red, Globet and Bodog, as well as the PartyCasino.com domain name. Poker sites implicated under the DPS’s order include FullTiltPoker.com and EverestPoker.com.

The current blacklist is merely “an initial sample” of gambling websites operating in Minnesota and will likely be extended to cover up to a thousand sites, Willems said.

The Wire Act stipulates that ‘common carriers’ should discontinue all services or facilities “being used… for the purpose of transmitting or receiving gambling information in interstate or foreign commerce in violation of federal, state of local law”, subject to “reasonable notice” from the appropriate federal- or state-level authority.

“The federal statute requires upon notice by a law enforcement agency… that you do not allow your systems to be used for the transmission of gambling information,” Willems wrote in his letter. “We are therefore requesting these enterprises not be allowed to transmit gambling information to your Minnesota customers.”

It is as yet unclear whether the 11 ISPs contacted by the Minnesota DPS last week intend to comply with the order. The DPS said it anticipated a response from the providers within “two to three weeks” of the notification, “at which time issues of non-compliance will be referred to the Federal Communications Commission”.

Minnesota’s move against online gambling follows an action launched last year by the office of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear to seize the domain names of 141 gambling websites considered to be operating illegally in the state. The Kentucky case currently remains pending before the state’s Supreme Court after a Court of Appeals ruled against the seizure earlier this year, but differs from the Minnesota action in that it does not directly implicate ISPs.

The DPS acknowledges that its efforts are the first instance of the Wire Act provisions being cited with respect to internet gambling and ISPs, while legal commentators suggest that ISPs - unlike other communications providers - may not be considered to be ‘common carriers’ under US law.

But ahead of any possible legal challenge to the Minnesota DPS’s request, state politicians are already moving to prevent further moves to forcibly introduce an internet gambling blockade in the state. Representative Garofalo said his bill would prevent the DPS from pursuing enforcement of the blocking order without prior approval from the state Legislature.

“The Department of Public Safety has to have better things to do with their time than to go after a college kid in his dorm room or some guy sitting in his basement spending a couple of hours playing online poker,” Garofalo said. “Demanding that a private-sector internet service provider blocks access to websites is not a proper function of our state government.”

He added: “I’m certainly not condoning online gambling, but I have serious concerns about government banning access to websites. This is the kind of thing they do in communist China, not the United States of America.”

Garofalo said his bill would still allow the DPS recourse to recommend legislation that would enforce a ban on internet gambling in the state, but added his belief that members of Democrat-controlled Legislature should instead focus efforts on closing the state’s budget gap. “How about we focus on balancing the state’s $6.4bn budget deficit and not harassing Minnesotans anymore than Democrat legislative leaders are already trying to do,” Representative Garofalo suggested.

Intriguingly, Garofalo is one of several state politicians to have proposed an expansion of land-based gambling as a budget-balancing measure in Minnesota, having personally co-authored legislation introduced last week that would allow the state lottery to authorise the installation of gaming machines at Minnesotan racetracks.

Garofalo’s House bill no. 2339 was introduced before the House of Representative’s Commerce and Labor Committee last month following the failure of gambling proponents in the Minnesota Senate to secure approval of an amendment to a state finance bill that would similarly add slot machines at local racetracks.

Garofalo’s racino proposal accompanies identical legislation already filed by Republican senators in January of this year. State Republicans favour expanded gambling over potential tax hikes as a revenue-generating measure to counter the current budget crisis, though the racetrack casino proposals could still face a veto by Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty if approved by lawmakers, according to Democratic House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher.