Jeremiah "Jay" Nixon, Missouri's attorney general, isn't sitting idly while illicit online businesses pop up in the Show-Me state. The 41-year-old Democrat and US Senate hopeful has arguably become the most aggressive state prosecutor of Web-based business.
This year, he has filed two lawsuits against Internet gambling sites: one against Idaho's Coeur d'Alene tribe, and the other against Pennsylvania's Interactive Gaming & Communications Corporation. When IGC refused to pay a US$66,050 fine, Nixon secured a criminal indictment against the company. In addition, he sued Hog's Head Beer Cellars in North Carolina for allegedly taking an online beer order from a Missouri minor. Nixon insists he only wants to protect Missouri citizens from illegal activity. Plus, he says, the federal government has been "AWOL" in its regulation of the Net. "If we don't draw these lines," Nixon says, "then there are no lines."
This article originally appeared in the December issue of Wired magazine.
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