The legal status of the gambling industry in the United States was addressed by the World Trade Organization back in November 2004. Then, a WTO panel ruled that American federal and state laws breached the general agreement on trade and services (GATS).
The American tendency to protect its own land-based casinos, while making the Internet version elsewhere around the world illegal, was criticized. These days, a short time after the recent bill was passed in Congress and signed by the President, another round is in place.
Following the legal developments, the WTO appeal panel convened again and upheld most of its previous decisions. The decision claims that the law discriminates between offshore sites and American based gambling operations. This distinction in the law is the cause for preventing them from protecting public morals and maintaining public order, as the law at least claims to be designed to accomplish.
The WTO is addressing a dispute expressed mainly by gambling sites based outside of the United States, in countries around the Caribbean, Europe and Central America. The government of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean wishes to protect operators based in its territories. They claim that the law, and the WTO supports their claim, prevents banks and credit card companies from transmitting funds related to the industry, essentially targeting foreign sites. As such, the law is an unfair trade act on a global scale.
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