US Online Gambling Ban Could Be Ending

October 6, 2007

With the United States sticking to their ban of online gambling and online casinos, more and more countries have been coming after them for what they see as trade infringements based on several different European and global trading organizations. The small country of Antigua has already used the World Trade Organization to take on the US, and has so far been very successful in getting the world on its side.

The European Union has decided to get into the fray and is suing the United States government for banning their online gambling operations in their countries, causing them to lose billions in online casino revenue. Now that talks between the EU and the US have stalled, it looks as though we might be getting even closer to having the UIGEA overturned as it is truly doing more harm than good in our country.

The EU’s countries do not necessarily want the billions that could be awarded to them; they want the US to open their gates again so that they can go back to earning some serious cash. They simply want the country to allow them to compete in other areas such as insurance so that they can earn some revenue to replace the money lost from online gambling.

The US is hesitant to do that because the move would cost billions of dollars from the insurance industry, who would obviously have a problem with that as well. The bill that has been offered by Barney Frank would allow the EU’s online gambling operators to come back into the country, but would not allow those that lost money to recoup any of that. This would hurt the WTO but would help the US in the end.




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