Minnesota’s Alcohol & Gambling Enforcement Division (AGED) and the Department of Public Safety (DPS) have released the official list of online poker and gaming sites considered “blacklisted” by the state’s authorities, which they are instructing Internet Service Providers to block for Minnesota residents.

 

The list does not seem to be very carefully selected and actually looks like made by somebody who does not anything about online gambling and that spent 15 minutes making a quick online research. Even when some of the largest online poker sites in the industry currently serving U.S customers have been mentioned on the list, including Full Tilt Poker and Bodog Poker, other sites such as PokerStars, Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker, Cake Poker, Carbon Poker, and Doyle's Room are simply not mentioned at any instance. But what seems really odd is that several sites that don’t allow U.S players are also included in the list, such as the case of Everest Poker, William Hill Casino, Hollywood Poker, Intercasino, Golden Palace Casino, Golden Tiger Casino, CDPoker, Titan Poker, Mansion Poker, Noble Poker, Ladbrokes Casino, Party Casino, as well as other poker and online gaming sites.

 

The Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) has already instructed its legal team to start working on the case. iMEGA requested the list of the 200 "black listed" sites from DPS, which initially refused to provide this information, and received and published the list of domains and sites, along with ISP letters sent to the phone and internet providers.

 

"We question how much thought was put into the selection of these sites. To propose censoring Minnesota residents' Web access and not to know which sites are even in the US market makes me wonder just how seriously the DPS is taking this action. It comes off as a half-baked attempt at intimidation rather than thoughtful enforcement." says Joe Brennan Jr., chairman of the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association.