Two gambling news stories today

[Cubswin]

US and Antigua dispute WTO ruling
BBC link

Antigua, U.S. Both Claim Win in WTO Gambling Row
Reuters link
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Gambling Bill set to become law
BBC link

[M.B.E.]

I haven't read the full decision, just the five-page summary on the WTO's web site:

http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/...abr_conc_e.pdf

Based on that, it looks to me that the United States was successful on the ultimate issues except some provisions relating to horse racing.

[tech]

[ QUOTE ]
Based on that, it looks to me that the United States was successful on the ultimate issues except some provisions relating to horse racing.

[/ QUOTE ]

You have it backwards. That is the only point on which the U.S. won. Antigua won the previous ruling, so everything upheld was favorable to them.

[tech]

Just to add to that ... the U.S. is full of BS on this deal. Even the NCALG agrees that the U.S. lost big:

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NCALG Decries WTO Ruling on Internet Gambling

The National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling is highly disturbed by the World Trade Organization's ruling today that all U.S. gambling Regulations are subject to second-guessing by WTO tribunals even after the U.S. government has made clear that it did not intend to subject the gambling sector to the WTO's authority. The decision about whether – and to what extent - to regulate or ban gambling is a sensitive one, taking
into account moral, economic, and social considerations. How we as a society deal with gambling should be debated and determined in Congress and statehouses across the United States, not the WTO.

The WTO Appellate Body ruling found that three federal laws regulating internet gambling violated the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and that the WTO exception for protecting public morals could not be used in this instance because the U.S. discriminates against foreign gambling service providers by allowing certain forms of remote gambling for U.S. companies. The WTO tribunal told the U.S. to change its laws to meet the WTO rules.

Most troubling, however, is the fact that the WTO's intrusion into domestic policy decisions regarding gambling will likely not stop here. The logic of this ruling paves the way for future challenges of U.S. federal, state and local gambling regulations, not only specific to internet gambling, but also regarding casinos, state lotteries, slot machines, and more.

We urge the United States to withdraw its gambling commitments under the GATS, and to cease seeking expansion of this clearly problematic agreement.

[M.B.E.]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Based on that, it looks to me that the United States was successful on the ultimate issues except some provisions relating to horse racing.

[/ QUOTE ]

You have it backwards. That is the only point on which the U.S. won. Antigua won the previous ruling, so everything upheld was favorable to them.

[/ QUOTE ]
I think I was right. The U.S. lost on the horse-racing issue.

What isn't clear to me is whether the Appellate Body was saying that the U.S. couldn't rely on the public morals exception for any online gambling, or just that it couldn't rely on the public morals exception with respect to bets on horse racing.

I'll try to read the full decision in the next week or two and post my comments.

[MicroBob]

without having read it (but I read the articles):


aren't they saying that the U.S. can't use the morals thing in regards to online-gambling BECAUSE they already allow horse-race betting?
In other words....if the US really has a moral problem with it then they wouldn't be allowing the horse-betting in the first place??



Interestingly, if the US were to ban the Off track betting as a way of shutting down the internet-gambling (which I find highly unlikely) then perhaps antigua could come back and argue that the US does not REALLY have a legitimate moral issue with horse-track wagering and that they only did it in an effort to discriminate against them.