Civil action 10-CI-505 claims that Full Tilt Poker owner Poker Kings and the other unknown defendants knowingly conducted commercial transactions, solicited money transfers, maintained customer accounts, collected rake, and installed software on machines within the borders of Kentucky.

The Kentucky suit, filed in the Franklin Circuit Court at the end of March, cites an obscure state law in its attempt to recover three times the amounts lost by people who placed online bets.

Louisville attorney Jon Fleischaker, who represents online gambling interests, told the St Louis Courier-Journal newspaper that an argument can be made that the transactions didn’t actually occur in Kentucky because none of the Web site operators are located there. He said it would be akin to the state suing an Indiana casino to recover losses incurred by a Kentuckian who gambled there.

“I think there are serious, serious questions about this,” he said.

Highly respected online gambling law expert and Whittier Law SchooI professor I. Nelson Rose, said the Beshear administration is attempting to use an old statute still on the books in many states. In the case of Kentucky, the law says that in instances of illegal gambling the winners have no right to collect. And losers who pay up can sue to recover triple the amount of their loss under the law.

The statute also says that if the loser doesn’t sue within six months “any other person may sue the winner.”

Rose said that, to his knowledge, no other state has attempted such a legal manoeuvre and that he expects the state’s lawsuit to fail.

“There are a lot of problems using that statute,” he said. “These are extremely ancient laws that have almost never been used for 100 years or more. The times have completely changed.”

Rose exampled one problem with the lawsuit in that in the case of Full Tilt and other online poker sites, Kentucky gamblers win and lose bets made with other gamblers, not the site.

The administration has attempted to counter this with the argument that the defendants (the poker site operators) are the ultimate winners because they receive a fee, or rake, for operating the game.

The Poker Players Alliance has also weighed in on the latest development, with executive director John Pappas observing: “The one thing that we can be sure of is that a continued assault on poker and attempts to restrict the rights of commonwealth residents to play online poker is a clear waste of state government’s scarce resources.”

However, a spokeswoman for the state’s representative, Justice Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown, insisted that although the ancient statute “had its origin many years ago, it still remains the valid law of the commonwealth.”

In this latest legal assault, the Lexington law firm that spearheaded Governor Beshear’s attack on 141 international online gambling domains is again managing the case. Beshear has been previously quoted as saying that the legal fees would not be a burden on Kentucky residents because the law firm volunteered to take the case and gets paid only if the state recovers damages.

The Courier-Journal report claims that a subpoena has been issued to an unidentified witness, and that FBI agents or prosecutors have spoken to at least two people involved in disputes with Full Tilt. The online poker company has also faced legal claims totalling $80 000 from Los Angeles players Lary Kennedy and Greg Omotoy, whom it accused of operating bots. Full Tilt has dismissed the claims as both baseless and frivolous.

The IPN is one of the world’s largest independent poker networks with over three million players. It also hosts a €100,000 Guaranteed Freeroll Tournament every Sunday while there are nearly 10,000 players competing at more than 1500 tables at any given time.

The lucky hand in question saw online competitor ‘Roger2010’ take home €210,508 after his quad eights were beaten by four queens on a €0.50/€1 no-limit table. In addition, the winner of the hand, ‘o1nfl1p’, walked away richer to the tune of €105,254 while the game’s other players were each awarded with €15,036.

“We boosted the jackpot last week so that the next winner would get at least €100,000,” said Per Karlsson, Head Of Poker for GTECH G2.

“As the total Jackpot went over €600,000, we had a feeling it was about to be hit.”

The IPN’s bad beat jackpot was last hit in August for $412,000 with that winner not even aware of their windfall until someone else at the table pointed it out.

To qualify for a bad beat jackpot, IPN players must be at a designated table and use both pocket cards in their winning or losing hand. The losing hand must be four-of-a-kind sixes or better, the lowest qualifying requirement of any poker network, with at least four players in the game.

GTECH G2 is the iGaming division of lottery giant GTECH and revealed that the new bad beat jackpot is already at well over €120,000.

Due to begin shooting this month at the Golden Nugget Hotel And Casino in Las Vegas, the sixth series of High Stakes Poker will premiere on February 14 from eight o’clock in the evening New York time with Scott conducting interviews about strategy, big hands and table dynamics.

In addition, GSN revealed that each episode would have encore airings on Sundays from eleven o’clock in the evening followed by a second three hours later.

Featuring a minimum cash buy-in of $200,000, High Stakes Poker will showcase some of the world’s top professional and amateur players including Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Tom Dwan, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Sammy George, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Andreas Hoivold, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, Allan Meltzer, Daniel Negreanu, Dennis Phillips, Lex Veldhuis and Yevgeniy Timoshenko.

Scott is well-known to television audiences after hosting the European Poker Tour in 2007 and 2008 while as a player she was the only female to finish in the money in both the 2008 and 2009 main event’s of the World Series Of Poker. The Canadian also finished second in the 2009 Irish Open in Dublin.

Slot machines, poker and blackjack are legal in Deadwood. Roulette is not. Two of the eight-player roulette games are now in the Cadillac Jack’s and Franklin Hotel casinos.

The legislative committee doesn’t have any specific authority in state law to block or overrule the declaratory ruling made by the gaming commission in June that the roulette games are slot machines.

Wrapping up an hour-long briefing, Rep. Roger Hunt suggested other members of the committee “give it some thought” and discuss the matter again a future meeting.

“I’m not sure there’s any particular action we need to take,” Hunt, R-Brandon, said.

The declaratory ruling was placed on the agenda as a discussion item Tuesday because “a number” of committee members had questions, he said. The gaming commission’s executive secretary, Larry Eliason, told the legislators that the roulette device also raised questions among the commission staff and some of the commissioners.

Eliason said testimony at the June hearing showed the device meets South Dakota’s legal definitions and requirements for slot machines. He said it’s not a live roulette game because there’s no dealer who runs the roulette wheel and ball, and players don’t buy chips to use for betting.

“It’s a theme. Every slot machine in Deadwood, every slot machine in Las Vegas, has a theme,” Eliason said.

“A court of law could still make its own decision,” Hunt said.

Roulette wasn’t allowed “for a reason” when the state constitution was amended to allow slot machines and card games in Deadwood, Rep. David Lust, R-Rapid City, said. “Does this game violate that concept?” he asked.

Eliason returned to his point that the device is not a roulette table. “Based on the scientific testimony, I think it’s a slot machine. It’s a roulettethemed slot machine,” Eliason said.

“I understand the technicality,” replied Lust, “and this game may technically comply with the definition of slot machine. My concern is who’s looking out for the spirit of the statutes and the constitutional amendment.”

Eliason said that given the evidence and testimony, he didn’t think the commission could have ruled that the roulette device wasn’t a slot machine.

“If the petitioners had appealed that decision to circuit court, in my opinion we wouldn’t have had a leg to stand on,” he said.

Christopher Detzler, 59, said he was playing a Wheel of Fortune machine when he won a $3.5 million jackpot – the largest amount ever won off a Florida slot machine.

The slot machine was a Class III progressive game which shares jackpots among casinos on reservations across the United States, making larger jackpots possible.

Detzler said he planned to buy a house but beyond that wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the rest of the money.

Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office concluded the initial constitutional review of the proposals. Now backers have to get about 66,000 signatures for each proposal as they move toward a full vote by the citizenry.

Coakley’s staff concluded that 25 of the 30 proposed ballot initiative passed constitutional and legal muster. They could come up for vote in either 2010 or 2012, depending on whether they would require changes to the state Constitution.

Among the proposals are bids to:

• Repeal some provisions of Chapter 40B that make it hard for communities to limit the construction of housing deemed by the state t be “affordable.”

• Remove tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike.

• Establish a right to health care in Mass.

• Reduce the state sales tax on alcoholic beverages.

• Protect whales from commercial fishing.

• Reduce state support for certain polluting power plants.

• Introduce what is called “instant runoff” voting in Massachusetts.

Among those petitions that failed was one that would have sought to alter mortgage foreclosure proceedings and another that would have expanded Internet poker in the state.