According to John Morris Minnesota is going to have a tough time executing its plan to use major Internet service provider to block online casinos state wide.  Morris is the general counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights group.

The first major problem that Minnesota will face is the legal classification of the cable companies and the telecommunications companies that provide DSL and broadband services.  According to a 2005 ruling by the US Supreme Court, these companies, such as Comcast and Verizon Wireless, are considered information service providers.  Minnesota was banking on a state law that allows law enforcement to demand that “common carriers” stop transmitting gambling related content.  It seems online casinos were able to dodge that bullet.

The other problem is that there may not be technology in extant that can allow Internet service providers to filter out all online casinos and gambling sites.  Morris argues that even if Internet service providers had the capability, they may not be willing to take the time and resource to block online casinos all across the state. 

“These are national networks, constructed and configured on a non-state-by-state basis,” explained Morris.

Morris headed up a similar case back in 2003, but this had nothing to do with online casinos.  This time the setting was Pennsylvania and the subject was child pornography.  Pennsylvania passed a law that required Internet service providers block all sites containing pornographic images of children.  The US district court judge was force to throw out the case because Internet service providers lacked the technology to enforce the law without also inadvertently blocking legitimate sites.