Gambling News - June 2005 Edition
"IGC Agrees that U.S. States Should Regulate Gambling"
Major row brewing between U.S. and WTO over Internet gambling.
The Canadian-based Interactive Gaming Council (IGC) has voiced its opinion
about the issues in the continuing row between the United States and the World
Trade Organization (WTO) over online gambling. The IGC expressed their agreement
with Utah’s Attorney General and his colleagues from 27 other states who
believe that the regulation of gambling should be left up to the individual states.
This after the Attorney General of the State of Utah sent a letter to the U.S.
Trade Representative saying that he “should have done more to stop the
World Trade Organization from ruling that gambling should be treated like other
recreational services,” and concluding that the ruling would ultimately
threaten all state regulations involving gambling.
“However, we would like to remind the Attorney General that maintaining
the U.S. tradition of letting the states, rather than the federal government,
regulate gambling will work both ways”, added executive director
of the IGC, Rick Smith. “This tradition means that Utah, for example,
has the right to attempt to ban all gambling. It also means that the federal
government should keep its hands off when a U.S. territory such as the
U.S. Virgin Islands, or the State Nevada tries to license and regulate
online casinos, or when North Dakota tries to license and regulate online
poker.”
The IGC also believes that the letter from Utah’s Attorney General
ignores the fundamental concept of international trade agreements and
fair play and the general workings of the WTO.
The IGC pointed out that the U.S. agreed to support the WTO and its
functions and that in the past the U.S. had benefited from the rulings
of the WTO. For the U.S. to now circumvent the WTO rulings or to try to
withdraw gambling from the original trade agreement is unethical and impractical.
The WTO followed proper procedure when it deliberated the case after receiving
the complaint filed by Antigua against the U.S. issued a decision, and
went on to issue a final ruling after both sides appealed the original
ruling. To ignore this process simply weakens the authority of the WTO
and opens the door for other countries to be equally unaccountable when
WTO rulings don’t favor their policies. “To retroactively
attempt to re-negotiate a complex treaty (GATS the General Agreement on
Trade in Service) because the U.S. doesn’t like a ruling under the
treaty is both unfair and impractical. International treaties require
accountability and flexibility. No country can expect to win every case.”
“The IGC was not completely satisfied with the WTO’s ruling
on the Antigua complaint,” said Keith Furlong, deputy director of
the IGC. “But at least the WTO established that the GATS includes
a commitment to free trade in gambling and betting services. It even concluded
that the U.S. violates GATS by permitting ‘remote betting services
for horse racing’ only for domestic suppliers and not for foreign
suppliers of such services.”
“Progress will come when the U.S. gives the go-ahead to its states
to regulate gambling. That means the rights of states to license and regulate
Internet gambling, as well as giving states like Utah the rights to try
and ban all forms of gambling, if that’s what they want.”
The IGC believes that the U.S. and the international community would
be far better off if the U.S. would stop fighting the inevitability of
the international online gambling industry and started working constructively
on regulating online gambling in the same way that land-based gambling
is regulated.
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