iMEGA Continues the Fight, EU & US Online Gambling Talks Stalled

The online casino industry will be all ears when iMEGA President Edward Leyden speaks at the European I-Gaming Congress & Expo in Barcelona next week as The Guardian news website reports that online gambling compensation talks between the EU and the US have stalled.

The Gambling911 website reports that Leyden will be speaking at EIG as part of a panel discussion on US internet gambling law. iMEGA has challenged the UIGEA in US court as being "unconstitutional" and the next few weeks may result in a US judge deciding on whether the UIGEA can be enforceable.

A lawyer for the US government claimed that iMEGA did not have the legal standing to argue first amendment law and that the UIGEA was not intended to prosecute American citizens for betting online.

Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that talks have stalled between the US and the EU over fair compensation for the US blocking EU-based online gambling companies from the American market.

Antigua took the US to task in the WTO over the UIGEA and won their case, with the WTO panel determining that the US must now pay fair compensation to any nation which has lost revenue as a result of the UIGEA. Antigua argued that the UIGEA was a protectionist law as the US continues to allow domestic operators to take online wagers.

Large online gambling companies like PartyGaming and 888 were forced to withdraw from the US market last year when the UIGEA was passed into law, and the European Union will be seeking billions of dollars in compensation. If the US decides the cost of these compensation claims is too prohibitive, they will be forced to allow global online gambling companies access to the US market.

The ongoing WTO saga could provide just the impetus House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank needs to push his Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act 2007 through Congress. Rep. Frank (D-MA) has stated the UIGEA is "an inappropriate interference on the personal freedom of Americans" that should be undone.

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