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U.S. Gambling Measures Lead to EU Investigation
The United States has taken various measures against Internet gambling over the past few years, including prohibiting U.S. banks and credit card companies from processing payments to off-shore online gambling businesses.
Since this restriction does not apply to U.S.-based gambling businesses, it has generated a great deal of protest from non-U.S. betting operations. The U.S. continues to enforce the restriction, however, and continues to take action against foreign gambling businesses (as part of its campaign against gambling, for example, the U.S. Department of Justice arrested two executives of foreign gambling businesses who were travelling in the U.S. in 2006).
The World Trade Organization has ruled against the U.S. restriction in the past on the basis that it unfairly shuts out non-U.S. businesses from a lucrative market while U.S. business can operate unimpeded. Now the European Union has launched an investigation into the issue, prompted by claims from European gambling companies that the U.S. practices unfairly discriminate. The investigation could conceivably lead to another WTO complaint, this time from the EU itself. Given that the online gambling business is estimated to be worth about $15 billion annually, the stakes in these disputes are high.
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