Bodog Online Casino to Change Domain

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Bodog.com is an online gambling portal operated by the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group and licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. It offers online casino services and also online poker and sports betting. Bodog.com has announced that it is relocating its services to a new domain at Bodog.eu. The existing Bodog.com domain will be no longer in use after the changeover is complete.

The reason given by the Bodog management is that this change is a part of an international expansion program that was initiated in December 2010. Another franchisee of the Bodog brand is operating in Europe, but Bodog.com has stated that it taking on a European domain extension will not impede or prejudice the other brand licensee. Alwyn Morris, Chief Executive Officer for Morris Mohawk said, "The experience of history tells us not to stand still and we feel this more global domain will appeal more directly to the new markets we plan to enter." Morris explained that though the deal for the European domain extension was signed last year, Bodog.com was ready only now to make the change. Morris went on to say that Bodog.eu will look at certain parts of the Asian online gambling market that the Asian franchisee Bodog88.com is not interested in. It is also eyeing some exciting market opportunities in Latin America.

The timing of the change of domain extension has coincided with the Black Friday and Blue Monday activities of the US Department of Justice. On Black Friday the three biggest online poker domains were seized and on Blue Monday ten other online gambling domains, including online casinos, were seized. This has led to speculation that the real reason for the domain change is to evade the US federal authorities. Even if web sites are hosted outside the United States but have .com, .net or .org extensions they are still vulnerable to law enforcement within the United States. This is because these domain extensions are handled by organizations located in America. VeriSign operates the .com and the .net extensions, whereas Afilias operates the .org extension. More and more online casinos will give up the .com domains in the near future. Doyles Room, which is a popular online casino and poker room, has relocated to Antigua and now uses the extension .ag.

There are reports that online casino players can still access the seized .com domains using the Firefox browser by adding on a utility. The Department of Homeland Security has requested that Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox browser, to make this add on dysfunctional. Mozilla has refused to do so till now. Harvey Anderson, Mozilla's lawyer, stated, "One of the fundamental issues here is under what conditions do intermediaries accede to government requests that have a censorship effect and which may threaten the open Internet."

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