Online Gambling Restrictions Bogus

According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United States is not in compliance with international trading. Antigua and Barbuda are fighting with the United States, and have taken their fight to the WTO to help them get the United States to allow online gambling.

The former British Colonies are fighting with the US, and are trying to get the WTO to force them to comply with international treaties governing trade in services. They say that the government’s laws against online gambling constitute “arbitrary and unjustifiable discrimination” against them and other foreign firms. They say that their rules are illegal because the two countries should be able to run their businesses online in the US and with the US ban on online gambling they cannot.

Initially, the WTO backed the US saying that the accepted the fact that the US felt that they had to basically protect their citizens from themselves. They said that the online gambling ban would protect public order and morals. But then the WTO realized that they still had off track betting parlors, which goes against their worries about online gambling. They said that if the US was allowing an exception for that, then they had to allow it for online gambling as well.

As our government is not currently in compliance with the WTO they need to do one of two things – either allow online gambling since off track betting parlors are the same thing when done overseas, or they have to make the OTB parlors illegal as well. Whichever they choose, they have to do it fast since we don’t want to remain out of compliance for long, or there will be sanctions brought against us.

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