While much of the talk surrounding the Commonwealth of Kentucky within the online gambling sector has dealt with Governor Stephen Beshear's failed attempt to seize some 141 domain names related to Internet gaming, not all is bad in Kentucky.  In a hotly contested Senate race, the online gambling industry will be focusing on Republican Rand Paul.  He's the son of Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul, a strong ally for legalized Web gambling. 

While Rand Paul hasn't publicly expressed his views on legalized Internet gambling, the widespread belief is that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  This might explain why Paul has managed to raise nearly double that of his rival, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson.  Rand Paul banked over $1 million during the third quarter compared to Grayson's $642,800.  Grayson is the GOP favorite however.

Kentucky and online gambling haven't exactly gone well together over the past year.  On Friday, The Kentucky State Supreme Court heard oral arguments for a suit by Gov. Steven Beshear's seeking to take control of the Internet domain names. 

The appeal was filed after The Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) and a coalition of concerned groups persuaded the Kentucky Court of Appeals to block a lower court's order, on the grounds that Judge Thomas D. Wingate had misapplied the state's gambling devices law, and inappropriately sought a civil forfeiture of domain names from their rights holder.

.... Representative Barney Frank's central role in drafting new regulations for the US financial industry has dramatically boosted his power as a political fund-raiser, helping him increase campaign contributions by almost a third more than at this point in the last election cycle, according to a report in the Boston Globe this past week.

Frank raised more in the first nine months of 2009 than any other Massachusetts lawmaker, and more than all but one of his fellow House committee chairmen, according to public disclosure filings.

Even though he ruled out accepting some donations to avoid creating a perception of conflict of interest, he dismissed the idea that taking money from other industries with business before his committee was a conflict. He said he has received contributions from all sides of the financial debate. Also, he said, "I'm casting the same votes I was casting 20 years ago.''

Of course, online gambling wasn't around 20 years ago.  He was feted at this summer's World Series of Poker by supporters of his legislation to legalize online gambling.

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher