Poker Superstars
Phil Hellmuth
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EU Digging Deeper on US’s UIGEA |
 There’s been a ton of activity lately regarding the United State’s unpopular stance on Internet gambling and online poker law, particularly in regards to the European Union’s quickly multiplying claims that the U.S.’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is unfair against foreign firms. After so many claims coming about, it’s now been officially announced that the EU will more directly investigate the “measures affecting foreign suppliers of Internet gambling services,” and potentially take a more incriminating stance against it.
This particular query is based off of a complaint from another as-yet-quiet UK-based gambling party called the Remote Gambling Association (RGA). The RGA has incriminated the U.S.’s stance directly, stating, “the U.S. should not be allowed to enforce gambling laws selectively against foreign suppliers.” This echoes the numerous other complaints within the EU regarding the U.S. stance, which finally set off the coming investigation.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson addressed the issue directly: “The U.S. has the right to address legitimate public policy concerns relating to Internet gambling, but discrimination against EU companies cannot be part of the policy mix. We are interested in a constructive and mutually satisfactory solution to this issue.”
Representatives of Mandelson’s office went on to broaden the explanation: “The challenge made by the RGA concerns the fact that laws and regulations that ban the supply of Internet gambling into the United States market were already in place at a time when the U.S. had WTO commitments allowing such services. They also claim that the U.S. is now selectively enforcing these laws against foreign suppliers, for online gambling services which they offered in the past. Industry therefore argues that the United States measures violate Articles XVI (market access) and XVII (national treatment) of the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services).”
The forthcoming investigation is stated to be put into effect over the next five to seven months. It has already been made clear, though, that the new RGA charge and the forthcoming investigation are to be considered completely separate from the settlement amount agreed upon in December 2007, where the U.S. agreed to take care of their negative impact on EU markets via paying out thousands in funds each month.
Clearly, this problem isn’t going to be dropped anytime soon. It’s just beginning to become a question of how much the U.S. is wiling to dole out to keep their moral stance against online gambling in place. Nothing new of course. Just our tax dollars flushed like frivolous garbage.
I don’t know about you, but I’m hoping the EU really sticks it to us.
March 11, 2008 |
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