WTO rules on internet gambling

[AeonBlues]

The World Trade Organization has rulled that US bans on internet gambling are a violation of free trade practices.

Please refer to http://asia.news.yahoo.com/040325/afp/040325204647hightech.html

for more information.

AeonBlues

[M.B.E.]

There's a good (short) analysis of the decision at the web site of the law firm Coudert Brothers:

http://coudert.com/news/client_advisory/040326_31_internet_gambling.pdf

(note this link is to a pdf document).

Since the actual decision of the WTO dispute panel has not yet been publicly released, the analysis is based primarily on the legal arguments submitted to the panel by the parties.

[StevieG]

Thanks for the link, that was informative.

One thing in particular strikes me. The analysis notes that the U.S. may be able to restrict gaming services in particular because part of the trade agreement stipulates:

Member governments shall not be prevented from adopting and enforcing certain specific kinds of regulations, such as measures “necessary to protect public morals or to maintain public order” or measures “necessary to secure compliance with laws or regulations”, provided that such measures are neither “arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination” nor “a disguised restriction on trade in services”.

The thing I find interesting is that these these measures are not arbitrary or a disguised restriction.

Is it arguable that services online are no different from the ones allowed in some form in so many states, and therefore the US position is a disguised restriction?

Within the U.S., Indian gaming took a similar tact - if state law allowed some form of gaming, they argued the state could not restrict the reservation from doing the same.