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By Philippe Legrain 5 COMMENTS

Online gambling is immoral and illegal – except when it takes place within US states, of course; oh, and interstate betting on horse races is also OK. That is the essence of the US’s new Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act, as clear-cut a case of protectionism as there is.

The EU ought to challenge the new law at the WTO, on behalf of 888.com,
partygaming.com, sportingbet.com and all the other online gambling
companies that have been dealt a hammer blow by Congress’s unfair law.

For sure, WTO rules allow countries to restrict trade for reasons of
morality – but only if the restrictions apply equally to all. So if
US legislators deem gambling to be wicked and sinful, they are
entitled to ban it – but they cannot simply block Americans from betting on
non-US websites.

Congress’s new law is hypocritical, protectionist – and illegal.

Posted 07 Oct 2006 in Blog
  1. AS Heath says:

    It’s basically good ‘ol fashioned protectionism by the back door. So much for free-trade Republicanism…

  2. ixgames says:

    I can’t understand how President Bush would take this game away from me and millions of other Americans!

  3. Jeff Swan says:

    High! Interesting site you have here… Thanks for it!
    http://thecasinodirectory.sbn.bz/ – casino online

  4. Well, I don’t really think online gambling is immoral. If online casino games are immoral, then people who play them are also. Everyone is responsible for his/her actions.

  5. Gregory says:

    It depends upon the peoples views on how they find land based or
    casinos online games
    . Many might do it for charity purposes, so it is considered legal. Its a matter of control and discipline maybe. Go for a clean and worthy play rather than a money-waste purposes.

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