The Bloombergs business news service expanded on earlier Reuters
reports that European Community officials may be unhappy with the
manner in which the United States has targeted online gambling for
Department of Justice enforcement actions. In an earlier report, EU
Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy told the European Parliament."In
my view it is probably a restrictive practice and we might take it
up in another fora,"
The U.S. is discriminating against foreign gambling companies by banning
payments to betting Web sites, said Charlie McCreevy, commissioner
for the European Union's internal market.
McCreevy told a panel of lawmakers that the EU should complain to
the U.S. over the Oct. 13 bar to online gaming. McCreevy, who doesn't
have authority over external trade, said he'll ask his staff to raise
the issue with his colleague in charge of trade, Peter Mandelson.
"In order to protect, I'd say, their own business, their
industry there, they have de facto prevented foreigners from online
betting into the United States,'' McCreevy said at the European
Parliament in Brussels. To journalists afterward he labeled it ``a
protectionist measure.''
The legislation seeks to close the business to people in the U.S.,
representing half of the world's Internet gaming market. Its backers
argued that a past ban on online gaming in the U.S. had just pushed
the business offshore.
A spokesman for the U.S. in Brussels declined to comment, saying it
was premature to respond to remarks by a commissioner where no action
has been taken.
Bloomberg reported that to crimp the flow of funds to betting sites,
Congress passed the bill Sept. 30 to bar cash processing companies
from processing payments to such businesses. Bush signed the measure
into law on Oct. 13.
Online gaming shares plunged and companies including Sportingbet Plc,
Leisure & Gaming Plc, PartyGaming Plc and Empire Online Ltd. ceased
U.S. operations or sold them for nominal amounts.
"It is probably a restrictive practice and we might take
it up in another forum,'' McCreevy said at the EU Parliament's
Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.
Asked by journalists afterward if that referred to a World Trade Organization
complaint, McCreevy said, ``The WTO talks have enough to be
going on with at the present time without adding this in. It's not
something that has major momentum.''
The U.S. is contesting a WTO decision from 2004, based on a complaint
brought by Antigua and Barbuda, that the ban on Internet gaming is
illegal.
The real sting in the tail of the Bloomberg report was a general comment
that: "A group representing U.S. casino operators such
as Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and MGM Mirage has pushed Congress
to fund a study of whether online gambling could be regulated, as
a possible way to get into the business themselves." That
sentence will resonate with many online gambling observers and operators
who believe that US action against online gambling is aimed at ultimately
securing the $6 billion US market for established US land gambling
companies.