EU Team Arrives to Investigate U.S. Online Gambling Policies
A delegation representing the European Union will go to Washington, D.C., this week, to question legal and trade representatives about Justice Department policies regarding Internet gambling. After repeated complaints by the Remote Gaming Association, the organization representing European online casinos, the EU inquired in writing as to the nature of U.S. prosecutions of legitimate foreign casino operators, despite the withdrawal of operations from the U.S. market.
The U.S. returned a brusque answer, waving off any European concerns, which has led to the Europeans crossing the Atlantic to ask questions in person.
The U.S. is currently seeking to withdraw from free trade commitments that obligated the country to allow online casinos the opportunity to compete with domestic gambling. However, even if negotiation results in the U.S. being freed from the responsibility to obey the treaty it signed as a member of the World Trade Organization, such a ruling would not remove or mitigate the damages done by the closing of the U.S. market.
Professor Joseph Weiler of the New York University School of Law said, "It is a shame that the E.U. has to go this far to seek a solution to such an unnecessary and avoidable dispute that, if not solved, will have wide-reaching consequences for the U.S. and the systems it benefits from and needs to maintain."
Legal representatives of the RGA asserted that retroactive punishment was illegal, while trade experts predicted rocky times for the U.S. trade relationship with the world if this case continued to fester. Congressman Peter King of New York is among Republicans who have broken with party lines to admit regulation prevents so many problems, including solving the international difficulties caused by the UIGEA, as well as taking a huge burden off the financial industry and making the Internet safer for children.
