All or Nothing...Gamblers Could Either Regain Online Betting, or Lose Simulcasting

[Zman179]

First article:

W.T.O. Sanctions Against US Are Urged
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (nytimes.com)

GENEVA, June 20 (AP) — The United States should face commercial penalties worth more than $3.4 billion each year for its failure to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling that its Internet gambling restrictions are illegal, the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda said Wednesday.

Japan and India, meanwhile, filed compensation requests with the trade organization because of Washington’s attempt to change the details of its obligations under the 1994 General Agreement on Trade in Services.

FULL ARTICLE HERE:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&ie=UTF-8&q=W.T.O.+Sanctions+Against+US+Are+Urged+New+York+T imes


__________________________________________________ _______________

Second article:
Threatening storm growing offshore
By STEVEN CRIST (Daily Racing Form)

NEW YORK - Leaders of the American racing industry cheered and congratulated themselves last October when Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act of 2006. Never mind that the Act, called "the stupidest law ever passed" by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chair of the House Financial Services Committee, was never debated or even read by most legislators after being sneakily and cynically tacked on to an unrelated port-security bill. Racing's official position was that the Act would end the flow of American dollars into offshore and foreign Internet gambling sites while giving the parimutuels a virtual exclusive on legal online betting.

Not so fast. Efforts are now underway in the House to repeal the Act, not only because it is an inane and unenforceable piece of legislation but because it has turned a minor trade-treaty dispute into a serious international incident - one with stakes so high that racing's lifeblood of interstate simulcasting could now be in real jeopardy.


FULL ARTICLE:

http://drf.com/drfNewsArticle.do?NID=86064

[trigger]

A few vocal track operators have tried to explain their stagnant business performance in recent years by claiming that vast sums were being lost to offshore operators. If they were right, where is the surge in domestic handle since the Internet gambling legislation was passed?

Shutting down racing's only growth segment and its greatest hope for long-term prosperity is obviously not what industry leaders had in mind when they supported the legislation and the government's position. It is now time to concede that the war against Internet wagering has been lost in the courts of both domestic public opinion and international law. In the long run, racing will be better served by aligning itself with those seeking legal and regulated wagering through all forms of communications technology rather than by supporting the imposition of medieval morality in the 21st century.

This article indicates the fight is far from over:
US withdrawal of WTO committments on gambling confirmed.........5/25/2007
"This is a great day for the parimutuel industry, Alex Waldrop, President and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), said on Tuesday. As a result of the withdrawal by the United States of its GATS commitment, the WTO will no longer play a role in the global debate on U.S. regulation of gambling services over the Internet. The NTRA has monitored this case for over two years, and we have argued from the outset that the GATS commitment should be withdrawn. Today's decision validates our long-held position."
"Tuesday's developments could represent the final step in the long-standing legal proceeding between Antigua and the United States. Antigua has procedural rights to secure permission from the WTO to retaliate against the United States, but it appears that the U.S decision to withdraw its WTO market access commitments on gambling services will neutralize the value of those rights."

http://www.horseracingintfed.com/newsDisplay.asp?story=467

[andicap]

And people wonder why I'm leaving the country. :rolleyes:

[Tom]

I've been telling everyone IRS. :D

[kenwoodallpromos]

"http://www.antiguagaming.gov.ag/Money%20laundering%20Issues.asp"
This is a link to a 2002 A + B press release about how they have been used extensively for terorrist money lauindering including the online gambling industry there and what their Dept of Money Laundering is trying to do about it.
The real reason the USA is willing to accept and make exception for horseracing is because entities within the USA have some kind of control over that money by agreements and with tracks etc. and/or through state governments there is control over where horserace gamblers can bet online. The racing industry is doing much more to keep online gambling money out of the hands of terrorists than those who run other forms on online gambling. These other countries who are making noise just do not care and are afraid the USA will go after the people who do copyright pirating next. As far as I know we have long been fighting intellectual property infringement, trying to do so through the WTO.
I find an interesting sidenote that I could not copy and paste the entire article because A + B put a block on it with a COPRIGHT NOTICE!!LOL!!

[gIracing]

you know how pissed I would be if I couldn't bet on Australian, UK and soon to be Japanese Racing?

I won't get on politics, but ovbiously the bush admin is one big cluster####. Every decision they make due to personal eventa that have happened within their lifes... if one of the sentors son didn't have a gambling problem this wuldn't be in issue, and I would still have my BETWWTS account

What's needed, what horse racing really needs, is a reason, not a legal one, to keep me from sending my money to Antiqua. I don't mind paying taxes on the money I make.. what i mind is the lackluster service that I get when I use these US Based ADW's

I can promise you one thing... let us have our choice on where we want to wager overseas, and I can PROMISE you this crap about me not being able ot bet in one state, and having to call and pick up the phone in another, but able to bet in this state will be cleared up in half a year tops.

horse racing does things because we let them. I guarantee you twinspires.com will get their act together when they see over half their funds go to overseas books.

what's sad is... even when I had my BETWWTS account half way across the world, I GOT PAID FASTER than I do with my xpressbet account. If I won a race at noon, by 3pm I was at western union picking up my money. With xpressbet I have to wait 3-4 days to see it. Stuff like this is what drives us away.

[gIracing]

add to that stories lke this

http://www.ifhaonline.org/newsDisplay.asp?story=475


and I think this act won't last for long.

take away silmicasting, and the horse racing industry dies