Online casinos and the WTO

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Created on Wednesday, 18 June 2008 08:56

 Bush´s administration is coming under increasing heat from the online gaming industry for breaking international trading law.

First, there is the ongoing battle with the Carribean island of Antigua who secured an award from the World Trade Organization. The U.S. is reluctantly continuing to negotiate with Antigua about $21 million in annual losses found by the WTO. Now the European Union has started to interview administration officials about damages to the economies of its member countries.

The Remote Gaming Association has claimed that its online casino members have lost hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of the UIGEA, and the value of some big european companies have been hit hard, as a consequence of the United Stares trade embargo on online gaming.

The investigation may lead to another WTO case against  the U.S., unless an agreementcan be reached.