According to the European Commission the U.S. is Violating a Trade Agreement
Recently the European Commission (EC) issued a report that had findings that United States law in terms of online gambling are not justified and they laws are discriminatory against foreign online gambling operators. Representative Barney Frank recently introduced legislation, which was the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act that would deal with this trade dispute. The Act would regulate online gambling and make foreign and domestic online gambling operators be on the same level.
Jeffrey Sandman, who is a spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, recently stated, “The European Commission report provides yet another reason why the administration and Congress should support pending legislation to regulate Internet gambling, which would resolve the trade agreement violation and better protect consumers. The Obama Administration should seek to forge a new direction on Internet gambling, rather than keeping in place a protectionist trade policy that hypocritically discriminates against foreign online gambling operators.”
The EC report was brought about by a complaint by a Trade Barrier Regulation and the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) filed the compliant. The RGA concluded that the treatment of foreign online gambling operators by the United States in laws that are in place makes it difficult for European companies to have access to the U.S. market. The report also found that the U.S. is violating international trade law, as they state they are using legal action to go after foreign online gambling operators, as at the same time they allow domestic operators, especially those dealing with horse racing, to thrive in the U.S. market.
The report also suggests that in order to resolve this trade dispute there should be talks with the new Obama Administration. If the EC and the U.S. are not able to negotiate to resolve the issue the EC may go to the World Trade Organization and file a case against the U.S.
The legislation presented by Frank would bring about an online gambling framework dealing the licensing and enforcement, which would let online gambling operators from U.S. residents. Also, Frank’s legislation mandates several protections for consumers, such as underage gambling, problem gambling, fraud, identity theft, and money laundering.
There was a companion piece of legislation to Frank’s bill, which was introduced by Representative Jim McDermott. This piece is the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act, which would deal with the taxation and regulation of online gambling. If the U.S. were to tax online gambling the U.S. would pull in an estimated revenue of between $48.6 billion and $62.7 billion over the next 10 years, according to a tax revenue analysis. If this legislation by McDermott is not passed by Congress the revenue will not be collected, as millions of Americans that gamble online will continue to do so without having any consumer protections.
