Time to Fold
Wall Street Journal Europe
April 10, 2008
A trans-Atlantic spat over online gambling may help rewrite the rules of the game for Internet commerce across borders. For a change, the Europeans stand on the side of free trade, while America dabbles in regulatory overreach.
The European Union last month launched an internal probe into whether the U.S. Justice Department selectively enforces its antigambling laws against European online firms that offer wagers on sports events. Brussels is making a narrow legal point that Washington discriminates against Europeans by simultaneously permitting U.S. Internet horse betting. That's against World Trade Organization rules, and the case may end up there.
The U.S. last year lost a similar WTO online gambling case against Antigua and Barbuda. The island nation argued that U.S. online gambling rules violated Washington's GATT commitments to open its market in "recreational, cultural and sporting services." The U.S. countered that its policies were justified to protect public morals and public order, a legitimate exception under WTO rules. But the WTO panel ruled that America wasn't applying its restrictions equally to foreigners and domestic operators. U.S. online horse-betting sites aren't banned.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120779121832703691.html
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Where the votes are
Americans treasure freedom; the party that gets serious about giving us liberty will win the future
Los Angeles Times - March 20, 2008
By Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
Key highlights: Legalize online gambling. At least since the mid-1970s, betting has been something Americans love to do. A 2006 poll found that 78% of Americans believe the government should not "restrict what adults do on the Internet in the privacy of their own homes." Yet the feds are waging an unwinnable war on online gambling -- even incurring a World Trade Organization sanction for jailing the head of a legal, Britain-based operation when he changed planes in Dallas.
Make the Internet tax moratorium permanent. Speaking of online freedom, the Internet Tax Fairness Act of 1998 banned state and local governments from levying sales and access taxes in cyberspace. That was back in the days before the Net economy -- and telecommuting and various other adjunct activities -- had become a mass phenomenon. Every few years, the moratorium comes up for renewal. The party of the future -- even the party of today -- will be the first one to make the ban permanent.
Read the full article here http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-welch20mar20,0,1852254.story
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The National Council on Problem Gambling and the Online Poker Industry
Pocketfives Feb 21, 2008 - The organization finds itself, like the online poker industry, stuck in a grey area with the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and development of the bill’s enforcement regulations. PocketFives.com sat down with Whyte to get his take on recent industry developments.
http://www.pocketfives.com/07B8D1CF-4997-4E23-8662-9215635C0BE1.aspx
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Antigua seeks WTO arbitration in U.S. gambling dispute
GENEVA (Reuters) January 31, 2008 - Antigua has asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to arbitrate in a dispute over gambling with the United States, its lawyer in the case said on Thursday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080131/wr_nm/trade_wto_gambling_dc_1
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Germany, Sweden Get EU Warnings for Gambling Rules
Bloomberg - January 31, 2008 - The European Commission repeated warnings to Germany and Sweden over gambling restrictions, backing gaming companies in a fight against barriers to foreign business. The commission, the European Union's executive arm, threatened to sue Germany over an online gaming ban that took effect Jan. 1, and Sweden over restrictions on poker, the Brussels-based agency said today in two statements.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=azcgnuKHzd2c
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Press Release: IGC says prevalence study is no cause for celebration
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 25, 2007 – While the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC), like all advocates of responsible gaming behaviour, is pleased to see that the rate of problem gambling in Britain has not increased in the last eight years, our members are committed to deploying the latest technology and improving internal procedures to assist in further abatement of a problem that currently exists in both land-based and online gaming.
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