Once again, I leave the office for a few days, and therefore the industry lights up with interesting, if not overly important, news.

It looks like the bodog.com domain is once again in the possession of Bodog, er, the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG).

Currently, it is still redirecting to their bodoglife.com domain, but I imagine that will be changing shortly.

The domain has been in dispute now for at least two years, after Bodog failed to respond to a patent lawsuit and had the domain seized as part of the default judgement in favor of the patent-trolling plaintiff, First Technology LLC.

As of yet, MMGG is not releasing how much it cost to get the domain back, but a couple of stories (here and here) describe the deal as a "domain licensing agreement", which indicates to me that MMGG still does not own or control the domain, but rather is leasing it from First Technology.

Even this seems kind of murky to me. If First Technology is an American company, then are they even allowed to license the domain to a gambling company? Either way, I don't care.

But this news is definitely good for Bodog, which has managed to stay afloat for the last year despite a flood of negative publicity and the seizure of bank accounts.

Of course, their survival depended upon some massive cost-cutting measures, as well as the timely retirement of "former" owner, Calvin Ayre, who was becoming a negative press magnet.

However, with their domain back and the tide turning against the UIGEA, it looks like Bodog may finally be off life support.