At the request of Antigua, where many online gaming sites are located, the World Trade Organization has set up a committee to investigate our government's activities in regard to online gambling. Antigua and many other nations say that trying to shut down this trade that is perfectly legal almost everywhere but here is a restraint of trade that violates the WTO agreements. This could get interesting.
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I would have thought that legalisation would be a nightmare for Antigua. All those gambling server farms would relocate to Delaware.
I don't know how the WTO functions, but from other international bodies it's usually that they can make whatever judgements they want but powerful nations can just ignore them.
Matthew said:
Indeed. The US certainly doesn't have a problem ignoring them, say, when it comes to things like softwood lumber. (Gee, can you tell I've been an expat living in Canada for five years?)
I remember reading the decision of the first panel to hear the antigua-US dispute, and thinking that the reasoning was a little thin. Defensible, but just barely. Given that, and given the casino-Abramoff money in play, this'll almost certainly be another intractable softwood lumber kind of situation.