Originally published September 14 2005
World Trade Organization orders U.S. to clarify internet gambling laws
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The World Trade Organization has ordered the U.S. to clarify its laws concerning the banning of all internet gambling except horse racing by April because, Internetnews.com reports, the trade restrictions that accompany the gambling ban are inhibiting the economic growth of the small island nation of Antigua.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has given the United States until April to clarify its laws permitting Internet betting on horse racing but banning all other types of online gambling.
Washington hopes the clarification will end the long-running trade dispute with the tiny Caribbean island nation of Antigua, which is attempting to rebuild its hurricane ravished economy with online casinos.
Antigua, the smallest member of the WTO, says the apparent inconsistency serves as a basis for Americans to legally gamble through online, offshore gambling casinos.
More than two years ago, it filed a trade complaint with the WTO against the United States.
The decision said Washington has the right to keep gambling services off its list of free trade obligations to other WTO members under the organization's rules permitting countries to refuse to deal in goods and services it bans at home.
Antigua, though, gained some measure of satisfaction in the decision when the WTO noted that the United States does permit online wagering when it comes to horse racing.
Antigua insisted on a shorter time frame for the U.S. response and the WTO agreed, giving Washington until April 6, 2006.
In its April ruling supporting the U.S. ban on gambling, the WTO found "the possibility that the [Interstate Horseracing Act] exempts only domestic suppliers of some remote betting services for horse racing from the prohibitions" on remote gambling in pre-existing federal laws.
Moorjani added, "We have to clarify is that there is no arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination in the treatment of horse racing."
The dispute dates back to 2000, when Congress changed the language in the Interstate Horseracing Act to accommodate national betting through simulcasts at tracks throughout the country.
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