For EVERYONE Who Thinks that iPoker is Safe From the U.S. Gov.

[Cancer Merchant]

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Step one: US cracks down

Step two: Foreign nations appeal to the WTO for a ruling on behalf of their companies

Step three: WTO rules that the US's restriction of gambling using foreign companies is against fair trade rules since the US has casinos. US has 1 to 5 years to rectify or be sanctioned

Step four: Us (as usual) sends out a defiant press release, and then backs down just before the sanctions hit. Case in point, the steel industry.

Worse case scenario - we get shut down for a few years.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

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Step two has happened, with the WTO ruling that the US can indeed regulate Internet gambling "to maintain 'public morals' and 'public order.'" News Legal Analysis

This is, of course, for general Internet gambling, not poker per se. Whether step one is imminent remains to be seen.

[Luv2DriveTT]

[ QUOTE ]
Step two has happened, with the WTO ruling that the US can indeed regulate Internet gambling "to maintain 'public morals' and 'public order.'" News Legal Analysis

This is, of course, for general Internet gambling, not poker per se. Whether step one is imminent remains to be seen.

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Of course that was the US's PR spin. In reality the ruling stated differently.

"Antigua and Barbuda, the tiny Caribbean nation that filed the case, interpreted the ruling differently, saying it would compel the United States to make some accommodation for Antiguan gaming operators.
The United States either has to outlaw all gambling or "they will have to provide Antiguan online gaming companies fair access to the U.S. market," said Mark Mendel, Antigua's lead legal counsel in the case."

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[Cancer Merchant]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Step two has happened, with the WTO ruling that the US can indeed regulate Internet gambling "to maintain 'public morals' and 'public order.'" News Legal Analysis

This is, of course, for general Internet gambling, not poker per se. Whether step one is imminent remains to be seen.

[/ QUOTE ]

Of course that was the US's PR spin. In reality the ruling stated differently.

"Antigua and Barbuda, the tiny Caribbean nation that filed the case, interpreted the ruling differently, saying it would compel the United States to make some accommodation for Antiguan gaming operators.
The United States either has to outlaw all gambling or "they will have to provide Antiguan online gaming companies fair access to the U.S. market," said Mark Mendel, Antigua's lead legal counsel in the case."

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm sure we haven't heard the last of this case from either side, of course. The "public morals" exception looks like the type of hole countries can drive a truck through, providing the type of leverage the US didn't have when pushing steel tariffs.