On 10 June 2009 the European Commission finally published (and filed with the World Trade Organisation) their report on the USA’s actions with regards to US internal online gambling laws and the knock on effect this has on international trade practices. According to the report, prohibitory laws like UIGEA are contrary to many of the WTO international trade practices and policies and shed a bad light on American willingness to keep the market on a balanced footing.
The Commission is critical of the American anti-gambling laws on three levels. The first being its flagrant flouting of WTO rules regarding trade practices by its implementation of online gambling laws. The second, because it says that it is enacting “discriminatory practice(s) that violate the international code”. An example of this is by allowing for gambling on domestic horse racing if the company taking the bet is US based, whilst prohibiting foreign based companies from accepting the same bets. Another criticizm levelled at the US by the European Commission is that it permits companies, such as the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, to offer free internet games to European punters, without allowing European gaming companies to offer the same to US punters.
According to the EU commission American anti-online-gambling laws such as UIGEA are a “barrier to market access on EU economic interests”. The EU claims that it has a legal case for action against the US through the WTO for loss of revenue for millions of dollars but it is instead hoping that the new administration will see sense and come back to the negotiating table and work to re-open that international online gaming trade.
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This entry was written by Nena on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 2:37 am and is filed under News.
