The World Trade Organization quarrel between the United States and several other countries doesn't seem to be going the right way. Many countries, notably the European Union, believe that the United States owes them large sums of money due to the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act. They claim that large business companies lost billions as a direct result of the enactment and that the United States must pay the bill. Those countries have asked the World Trade Organization to act in the matter, and an October 22nd deadline was established. However, with no real progress made and new deadline was set for December 14th.
World leaders in online gambling such as PartyGaming, Bwin, Sportingbet and 888 speculate that their stock market value went down by billions of dollars as a result of the new legislation in the United States. Most of their business was focused on the United States gambling market and they suffered a direct hit. Currently, no real progress has been made. Although the US Trade Representative said that things are moving along, we haven't heard about action being made and no funds have been agreed upon nor transferred.
Hopefully, this kind of international economic pressure will get the administration to realize that regulating the online gambling industry is a much better idea than the current way of handling online casinos. The largest companies in the world of online entertainment are eager to invest their funds into the American economy, but the current bill is stopping them and causing them to sue the United States for compensations. No one really knows what the countries really demand or what they will get eventually. However, we all know the price that the United States is paying in the field of international trade and the credibility that it's loosing.
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