A World Trade Organization arbitrator has given the United
States until April 3 to comply with the panel’s April 7 decision
ordering the United States to cease discrimination against foreign
online casinos.
Attorneys for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said
Monday that the U.S would comply, but suggested any legislative remedy
adopted by Congress isn’t likely to throw open the doors to the offshore
cyber-gambling industry. If anything, they said, that door might be
slammed shut even tighter.
“It is the position of the U.S. Justice Department that Internet
gambling is illegal,” said trade representative attorney Bruce Hirsh.
“All we need to do to comply is to clarify” that Internet gambling
prohibitions apply equally to offshore operators, he said. “We don’t
need to let Antigua have access for horse racing.”
The WTO ruling last spring against the United States turned in large
part on exceptions in the federal Interstate Horseracing Act.