Gambling Should Have Never Been Included In The US Trade Agreement
 April 18, 2007, 10:18 pm (1 year ago)This week, Interactive Gaming News actually carried an informative interview with the president of the United States trade Body, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association regarding the predicament in which the United States of America actually find itself following the latest World Trade Organization ruling in a dispute over online gambling with Antigua.
President Alex Waldop said “the unfortunate fact is that gambling should have never been included under the General Agreement on Trade in Services in the first place”, when he replied to a question and answer session with Emily Swoboda who is an IGN reporter.
Alex Waldop also pointed out that one solution may actually be the removal of the offending clause.
He then said “and the only logical solution, perhaps not a practical solution, is to withdraw gaming from GATS. We’re the only country in the world, apparently, that included gambling”. “All other countries had the foresight to check the box and remove gambling from consideration.”
Waldop then continued “we neglected or failed or decided for whatever reason not to exclude, and now we’re left with this very difficult decision”. “Not only difficult for the racing industry, but actually it doesn’t bode well for other interests across the country because this ruling is based upon federal law, but it could just as easily have been based on state law claims. It’s not just the racing industry that’s put in an awkward position by this.”
Waldop then goes on to explain that withdrawing gaming from the trade agreement is likely to be a very complicated process.
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