Home / Poker News September 2008 / EU – US online gambling dispute headed to the WTO after all?
EU – US online gambling dispute headed to the WTO after all?
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2008-09-21 03:07
The dispute about online poker and gambling between the US and the EU which has been sought to be settled without the WTO’s involvement, looks to be headed in front of a WTO committee after all. The European Union feels that the US had abusively locked EU based companies out of the US online gambling and poker market, in blatant disregard of WTO rules concerning the matter.
Spurred on by the RGA (Remote Gambling Association) EU officials have repeatedly tried to reach out towards their US counterparts in order to attempt to find a solution to the problem outside WTO arbitration. With their efforts repeatedly rebuffed though, it looks like patience and alternative solutions are running thin for the EU, and therefore the case may be headed down the WTO’s alley after all, a move which shall pave the way for the EU to ask for additional economic damages the dysfunctional UIGEA has supposedly inflicted on its interests.
The latest round of negotiations on the matter the EU had initiated in the wake of a RGA complaint, appear to have been shipwrecked by the US Trade Representative – the organization which has assumed the responsibility to unilaterally modify US trade agreements – even though such moves would normally require Congressional approval.
After having cancelled several meetings with EU officials, the USTR finally accepted one last Tuesday, only to once again display its adamancy in the matter and rebuff the EU’s requests on all fronts.
After the unsuccessful meeting, Lode Van Den Hende, an RGA counselor, announced that it was increasingly likely for the dispute to follow the path of a similar complaint filed by the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda which eventually resulted in WTO arbitration and damages the US had to pay.
Another EU official has separately stated that the matter of whether or not the dispute should head to WTO arbitration will probably be decided by the year’s end. Like Antigua and Barbuda had a while ago, the EU estimates that the current ban on online gambling and poker in the US has cost hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to EU based companies.
