European Commission Wants US to Drop UIGEA

June 12, 2009

The European Commission does not want to fight with the United States. They want them to follow the laws as they are set up, and they want them to hold themselves accountable to the same standards that they make other countries hold up. They want the US to get rid of the online gambling ban that they have in place because it doesn�t allow free trade between countries, which is one of the things that the US wants other countries to offer.

The EC has said that they would hold off on launching legal action against the US until President Barack Obama had met with them and they came to an amiable solution. But now that Obama is in office, they are calling for a repeal of the UIGEA. They say that they have waited long enough for the foreign online gambling operators to be able to have access and they are not willing to wait any longer.

The big problem is that more than half of the world�s online gambling patrons live in the United States. By shutting out the European operators they have cost them billions of dollars. This is money that the EC is more than willing to come after the US for and force them to pay them, but they would rather they simply opened their borders to other online gambling companies.

They say that US based online gambling companies were able to offer their services to European residents without them being able to offer them back in return. They argue that you cannot offer it one way and not accept it the other, for that is clearly a violation of their trade agreements through the World Trade Organization.






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