WTO Says US Has No Jurisdiction Over Antigua Based Online Gambling

from the doesn't-matter dept

Just a few days ago we were discussing the slippery slope set up by US law enforcement officials for determining that any work done for an online gambling company – even if done in the country of that company where gambling is legal – is considered a criminal act. Now, the WTO has ruled against the US on this issue saying that the criminalization of online betting in other nations violates WTO accords. Of course, it sounds as if US politicians and law enforcement officials are just going to shrug and ignore the decision and continue with their current tactics to stop any American individual or company from dealing with any online betting operation – no matter how legal it is in their country of origin.


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Comments on “WTO Says US Has No Jurisdiction Over Antigua Based Online Gambling”

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10 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

I am a criminal

Many years ago I worked for a web development company in Australia. I had no choice in selecting the clients or projects that I worked on. Jobs came in were assigned to various staff by management and the work was done.

One of the projects was the development of an online casino. This is totally legal in Australia, the client had all the correct gambling permits and is in fact a publicly listed.

Assuming that a US citizen has at some stage since then accessed the site. Does that make me now a criminal? Do I have to lie on any future visa applications?

I think my name may still be in the comments of the source code. Can I ever travel to the USA again?

Jez says:

WTO is proven to be toothless (at least where it f

What I find so annoying, apart from online US gambling sites being allowed to tout for non-US clients (except for cross state horse race gambling) whilst denying access to their indiginous market from outside the US, is the blatant refusal to aknowledge (a) ruling(s) from the WTO critical of or contrary to US domestic trade policy. The USA is more than happy to use the WTO to try and get foreign governments (and companies) to fall into line with US wishes and then expects any WTO ruling to be enacted and enforced.
The current stance of Washington seems to be: WTO rules for us = good, enforce ruling.
WTO rules against us = bad, ignore ruling.
The message to not only the developed world but even more so to the third world is quite plain, the USA will use the WTO to further their international trade interests and curb anything percieved as a threat to US domestic trade. It is a blunt stick to maintain US trade interests worldwide at the expense of all other countries and the WTO has no powers to dispell this perception.

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