Proctor Journal

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement

Division (AGED) today announced that it has served written notice to 11 national and

regional telephone and Internet service providers (ISPs) instructing them to prohibit

access of all Minnesota-based computers to nearly 200 online gambling websites.

Online gambling is illegal in all U.S. states.

Written notice was served to AT&T Internet Services, San Antonio; Charter

Communications, St. Louis; Comcast Cable, Moorestown, N.J.; Direct TV, Los

Angeles; Dish Network, Englewood., Colo.; Embarq and Sprint/Nextel, both of

Overland Park, Kan.; Frontier Communications, Stamford, Conn.; Qwest, Denver;

Verizon Wireless, Bedminster, N.J.; and Wildblue Communications, Greenwood

Village, Colo.

“We are putting site operators and Minnesota online gamblers on notice and in

advance,” says John Willems, director of AGED. “Disruption of these sites’ cash flow

will negatively impact their business models. State residents with online escrow

accounts should be aware that access to their accounts may be jeopardized and

their funds in peril.”

Believed the first attempt by a state to employ this federal statute to restrict access

to online gambling sites, the letters cites U.S. Code, Title 18, Section 1084, (d);

notices were delivered Mon., April 27. Congress enacted the statute in 1961 in

recognition of the need for states to control illegal gambling activities and granted

authority for use of the statue to state law enforcement agencies.

Response from the notified ISPs is expected within two to three weeks, at which time

issues of non-compliance will be referred to the Federal Communications

Commission (FCC). Acknowledging the effort as an initial sample, Willems

anticipates the program expanding to address thousands of sites, depending on

compliance. He notes that the required technology to restrict geographic access to

particular sites is a relatively straightforward procedure on the part of service

providers.

In the written notices, AGED also provided the sites’ telephone numbers and

requested access to those numbers by Minnesotans to be prohibited. For more than

two decades, telecoms have shut down telephone numbers at the request of law

enforcement agencies when believed to be involved in illegal activities, such as

sports book-making telephone numbers.

“In Minnesota, and for Minnesotans, the primary issues are legality, state self-

governance and accountability,” says Willems. “In broader context, the long-running

debate on online gambling continues to raise significant issues, including absence

of policy and regulation, individual rights, societal impact, international fair-trade

practices, and funding for criminal and terrorist organizations.”