This past Friday, the Kentucky Attorney General issued an opinion (OAG-15-005) concluding Internet sweepstakes machines meet the definition of illegal lotteries under Kentucky law and computers used at Internet sweepstakes cafes constitute illegal gambling devices.
In 2007, the Kentucky AG similarly found phone card sweepstakes machines to be illegal gambling devices. Last week's decision concludes that "[e]ven if a person receives fair value for a purchase, if the value received is merely incidental to the underlying game of chance, it is a forbidden lottery."
The AG Opinion recognized several other states with similar conclusions – i.e. Ohio, Alabama.
Legislation (SB 28) was also recently introduced to ban Internet sweepstakes cafes in Kentucky.
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