If certain people in the U.S. government think the
rest of the world is going to sit idly by and watch as the UIGEA discriminately
places financial hardships on other countries and continues to serve as a
blatant violation to the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade
and Services, well then, these certain people should think again. Even better,
they really need to rethink the UIGEA and the whole idea of trying to ban online
gambling.
Aside from Congressman Barney Frank's recent
success at getting the markup on a bill that seeks to clarify the UIGEA (not
necessarily a positive thing for online gambling regulation per say), there
really hasn't been anything done that could potentially overturn the UIGEA
and/or replace it with some sound regulatory legislation. That is, of course,
unless the European Union delegation's U.S. visit this week will bring on some
needed pressure.
Headed by E.U. trade official and head of the
Dispute Settlement Office at the European Commission, M. Jean-Francois Brakeland,
an EU delegation met with the U.S. Congress and members of the executive branch
to investigate allegations that the U.S. is breaching international treaties and
World Trade Organization trade laws by implementing the UIGEA.
Thus far, the EU has stated it will be considering
all options and courses of action based on its investigation. Besides opening
WTO court proceedings and imposing sanctions on the U.S. for violating trade
laws, it is likely the EU will consider imposing a block on the enforcement of
the legislation itself.
This could very well mean the U.S. will get no
help whatsoever in trying to enforce the UIGEA in Europe. In other words, if the
U.S. Department of Justice seeks extradition of CEO's or tries to seize funds
like it did with online gambling eWallet, Neteller, let's just say they might
run into a few roadblocks.
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