Full Tilt Poker Victorious in Clonie Gowen and Domain Name Cases

The phrases “Full Tilt Poker” and “lawsuit” seem to go hand in hand these days, but the online poker room’s latest legal news is wholly positive for the site. Two recent court decisions, one out of England and the other out of Nevada, both ruled in Full Tilt’s favor and, though the site received no monetary compensation, it brought some of its ongoing legal matters to a conclusion.

The suit brought against Full Tilt by former sponsored pro Clonie Gowen was dismissed for a second time last week. The decision issued by U.S. District Court Judge Robert C Jones said that Gowen’s claim of unjust enrichment was an “indistinct cause of action” and denied Gowen’s motion to reconsider the order. Jones granted Gowen’s motion to amend her claim a third and final time and submit it to the court within the next 15 days.

Gowen filed suit against Full Tilt almost a year ago alleging that the company failed to compensate her adequately for her work promoting the site at live and televised events since 2004. According to Gowen, Full Tilt bigwigs told her that she would receive a 1% stake in the company, which her attorneys estimated to be worth $40 million. The suit was brought against numerous companies affiliated with the site, including Tiltware Inc. and Pocket Kings Ltd., and also named each of the members of Team Full Tilt.

The suit was originally dismissed in May, but Gowen was allowed to re-file her claim against Raymond Bitar, Howard Lederer, and Tiltware. This week’s dismissal was a response to that re-filing and, although Gowen is allowed to argue her case one more time, it seems unlikely that the suit will go her way.

Full Tilt received a ruling in another piece of pending litigation as well. Pocket Kings, a software company that works closely with Full Tilt, filed a motion in a British court against the Commonwealth of Kentucky following the State’s attempt to seize a number of domain names connected with online gambling companies. Pocket Kings filed the claim because the company that controls its domain name, SafeNames, was instructed by the Commonwealth to relinquish control of the URL fulltiltpoker.com, which would violate its contractual agreement with Pocket Kings.

Michael Furness, Deputy Judge of the High Court who heard the case, ruled in Pocket Kings’ favor, saying that Kentucky could not act as its own sovereign state and, as such, the seizure was unenforceable on British soil. According to Furness’ written decision on the case, Kentucky has made no attempt to seize Full Tilt’s domain name other than issuing SafeNames its initial seizure order.

The aforementioned domain name seizures were debated on the floor of the Kentucky Supreme Court on Thursday and the panel of seven judges is expected to issue a decision within four months. The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) fought Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear’s attempt to seize the domain names and argued on behalf of online gaming companies.

The Commonwealth failed to send anyone to represent their interest in the case, but a series of e-mails between the law firm Hurt Crosbie and May and Pocket Kings discussing the possible adjournment of the hearings confirmed that the State was aware of the proceedings, but chose not to attend.

In the end, Furness ruled in favor of Pocket Kings and declared that the Kentucky seizure was unenforceable. In turn, SafeNames agreed to refrain from enforcing the order and Full Tilt will retain its domain name for the foreseeable future.

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Useful poker terms:

S&M - Sklansky & Malmuth. Generally refers to the ideas and algorithms published by these two authors. When used in a 7-card stud context, often refers to "7 Card Stud For Advanced Players", and when used in a Hold'em context, often refers to "Texas Hold'em For Advanced Players".
MIDDLE POSITION - Betting positions approximately halfway around the table from the first player to act.
CARDS SPEAK - Winner(s) of the hand are determined by turning their cards face up, the best hand(s) wins (no declaration).
REPRESENT - Implying, by one's betting style, that one has a particular hand.
ALL-IN - To have all of one's chips in the pot. A player who is all-in cannot be forced out of the pot by more betting, but is only eligible to win that portion of the pot he has contributed to. Generally, a SIDE POT is created each time a player is all-in.
LATE BLIND - In addition to "regular" blinds, some games allow a player (particularly a new one) to post a blind bet in return for the right to enter the game immediately and act last on the first betting round. The amount of the blind is determined by house rules, usually somewhere between the last blind and double the last blind. It is frequently a LIVE BLIND.

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