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The US on Friday issued a response to the WTO decision that its law related to online gambling is "illegal". The World Trade Organization found in favor of Antigua, who filed a complaint against the US claiming the super power had harmed the tiny Caribbean island nation's lucrative online gambling industry through "protectionism" of its own gambling empires.
Haley Hintze of Poker News writes:
"The United States has announced that its way of complying with a recent online-gambling trade decision rendered by the World Trade Organization will be to ignore its own trade compacts. The U.S. announcement, the latest move in the long complaint brought by the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, is a rare ploy that not only amounts to a rewrite of history, but has the potential to threaten the very framework of the WTO itself."
This week, a deputy U.S. trade representative announced plans to modify the commitment made in 1993 to open U.S. markets to "recreational services." The modification will "clarify" that gambling services are not included, eliminating the WTO's jurisdiction over the issue - but there's a price to pay in terms of compensation to other WTO nations impacted by such an amendment to the original agreement.
The LA Times claims that the little-used technique might solve the problem with Antigua, but it won't fix the flaws in U.S. policy.
"As the off-track-betting issue illustrates, Congress loses interest in protecting people from the lure of online gambling when thoroughbreds and trotters are involved," it points out. "Similarly, interstate restrictions on games of chance evaporate for state lotteries - a form of gambling that the government enthusiastically promotes.
"Meanwhile, restrictions on other forms of wagering have led to perverse results. The most closely scrutinized and stable gambling businesses - casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City - stayed out of online wagering, conceding the field to unregulated and, occasionally, fly-by-night operators. A federal law passed last year to prohibit credit card companies from processing bets has spawned a host of workarounds, including online wallets and repurposed prepaid phone cards," the piece continues.
"A saner approach would be to allow online betting through licensed and regulated operators, as proposed by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee," the editorial concludes. "Such operators could be required to meet age-verification standards, analyze betting patterns to detect and block compulsive gamblers and pay additional taxes, with a portion going to treat gambling addiction.
"This approach would do far more to protect the public than ineffective prohibitions that criminalize only the high-tech version of an otherwise legal act." |
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发表于 2007-5-7 23:05
