Home / Poker News July 2008 / UIGEA under increasing fire, this time by EU officials
UIGEA under increasing fire, this time by EU officials
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2008-07-23 19:52
After having proved that it was completely unfit to fulfill the goals it was supposed to attain, the UIGEA is coming under attack from a wide variety of sources. California lawmakers are pushing a bill right now which could make it possible for the residents of the Golden State to play intra-state online poker legally by August next year.
In the same time, pressure to turn online gambling into a revenue stream for the federal government is also mounting. A few days ago, Congressman James McDermott introduced a bill which details how funds obtained from the taxation of online gambling activities could be turned to alleviating pressure on sectors hard-hit by the recession.
Now, a group of high-ranking EU trade officials announced their intentions to conduct talks with their US counterparts aimed at clarifying the status of the UIGEA which is seriously undermining EU interests trough its obviously discriminatory and restrictive nature, in blatant breach of general WTO guidelines and regulations set forth under the GATS agreement.
The EU had attempted to bring the issue up before by sending a questionnaire to the US Trade Representative’s office. Instead of the explanations they were seeking though, they got hit with a short-handed reply which stated that the concerned authority had no knowledge of the discriminatory nature of US gambling laws. Mind you that the Trade Representative’s office has a history of withdrawing US commitments from under the GATS agreement.
EU trade officials led by Commissioner Peter Mandelson were obviously not satisfied with the half-hearted response their previous initiative resulted in, therefore they decided to attempt to push their agenda personally. The talks they’ll have with US officials will probably not result in a huge breakthrough, as the EU’s means to force a favorable resolution to the problem are limited.
The possibility of sanctions against US banking institutions is highly likely though, as the banking industry is the one that is supposed to enforce the rules set forth by the UIGEA.
Such a measure would probably further strain the resources of an industry already under pressure by the costs of implementing the infrastructure needed to handle the UIGEA’s requirements.
