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US Faces $100 Billion Fine For Web Gambling Ban
Stony Stevenson writes with the news that the World Trade Organization is seeking billions of dollars in compensation from the United States from their ban on internet gambling. The view of the WTO is that the US has reneged on commitments to the organization. "The disputed concessions arise from Antigua's victory earlier this year when the WTO ruled that the US violated its treaty obligations by excluding online Antiguan gaming operators, while allowing domestic operators to offer various forms of online gaming. Instead of complying with the ruling, the Bush administration withdrew the sizeable gambling industry from its free trade commitments. As a result, all 151 WTO members are considering seeking compensation for the withdrawal equal to the size of the entire US land-based and online gaming market, estimated at nearly US$100 billion."
I'm sick of the current US administration thinking it's the world police and moral authority for everyone... and US citizens should be the first in the street carrying banners and sidearms. Can you imagine if the entire world were governed by the people in the Kansas educational system? The current administration is just a watered down version of Kansas.
I can't fit it up my ass!
-Cory Doctorow
I think it's high time we started shipping opium back to China.
We could even use the WTO to club China when they object.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Internet gambling is banned because it is almost impossible to regulate. The only form of "online gaming" that operates in the US that I am aware of are poker tournament sites, which aren't gambling sites ("gaming" = gambling, at least thats what it means according to the Nevada Gaming Commission, Viva Las Vegas!) , you pay a single, one time low fee to enter.
This article is saying the US "allows domestic gambling sites to operate with impunity" while banning foreign sites. If the WTO is going to start filing these sorts of claims against us than maybe we (US) should remove ourselves from it. Although, I don't see this "fine" going anywhere.
Fining 100 Billion dollars from the worlds biggest consumer/customer is bad business.
This article is pure garbage, they even resorted to Bush bashing, because we all know Bush controls all gambling.
Global warming is a cube.
The United States is a signatory of the WTO, and is therefore bound by both international and domestic law to abide by.
Explain how this is relevant!
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
Let's just kick the UN out of the US.
Pull out of the WTO
and say the hell with TRANZI agendas.
Its interfering with our internal laws and traditions for purposes of predation by outside varmits.
Much earlier, actually. It happened when the US Congress allowed itself to collect Income Tax — there was a pretense of ammending the Constitution, but the procedure was never properly followed.
Since then various people have gone to jail for refusing to pay the tax — on the grounds of it being unconstitutional. The worst part is that they are dismissed as "lunatics" by both their peers and the courts. "What do you mean, no income tax? We've always paid it!"
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
... No. But I do enjoy having relatively well-maintained roads and highways, a free public education for my kid, police patrolling my neighborhood, a fire department that saves many structures and lives, working water and sewer systems, a court system... and all the other things my taxes pay for. ...
I don't have a car, no kids, I live alone (no neighborhood) in an abandoned gov. concrete bunker (no fire), have my own well and sewage system, so why do _I_ have to pay for your luxuries?