US Antigua decision a snub to WTO

The United States last week decided to withdraw from one of its WTO commitments after it finally lost its battle with Antigua and Barbuda over on-line gambling. The decision has evoked a storm of outrage and concern.

“We did not intend and do not intend to have gambling as part of our services agreement,“ said Deputy US Trade Representative John K. Veroneau. “What we are doing is just clarifying our commitments.“

The WTO treaty allows a country to withdraw commitments to open its services market to foreign investors, but since the treaty was originally negotiated multilaterally (as with all WTO treaties) the US will now have to negotiate with any of the other 149 member countries that objects to the move and wants to renegotiate any of their own commitments in return.

Senior officials in Antigua and Barbuda were taken aback by the decision. “While we had of course been aware of the possibility of the United States taking such an action, we frankly considered it extremely unlikely,“ said Dr Errol Cort, Antigua’s Minister for Finance and the Economy. “It is almost incomprehensible that the United States would take such an action in the face of an adverse dispute resolution ruling. This is going to have very severe consequences for the global free trade movement.“

Mark Mendel, Antigua’s lead counsel in the WTO proceedings, said that the US was wrong to say that it didn’t intend to include gaming in its services commitments: “There is simply no basis for such a statement. When the schedules were drawn up over ten years ago, there was extensive debate, proposal and counterproposal from all WTO members in determining what commitments would be made. More than a dozen countries were able to expressly exclude gambling from their commitments, and many dozens more excluded the commitment in other ways. For the United States to say this was a mistake is just not true.“

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Tour de France team hit by gambling controversy

The Tour de France bicycle race has once again been hit by controversy. But this time it is not over drugs but gambling; as the European Commission rides to the rescue of a team banned for being sponsored by an online bookmaker.

France’s restrictive gaming laws have led tour organisers to block a team backed by Unibet, a Malta-based gambling company, from entering July’s competition. Charlie McCreevy, the European Union’s internal market commissioner, has written to lawyers of the Green Cycle team and the International Cycling Union, the sport’s governing body, pledging his support.

He is already taking Paris to court for protecting its national gambling monopolies against online competition and says he will seek to broaden the case to include this restriction.

McCreevy detects more than a whiff of hypocrisy, given that the biggest backer of the tour is the PMU, the French horse racing monopoly, which encourages bets on the race.

“The consistency of the French approach is highly questionable, given that other teams sponsored by gaming operators in France, such as the Francaise des Jeux (lottery operators), are permitted to participate and given that the main sponsor of the event is in fact a gaming operator, the PMU.” says the letter. ”The Belgian national lottery also has a team.” he adds.

Green Cycle, which joined the professional tour this year, has recently been banned from two races through the Belgian Ardennes by Amaury Sport Organisation, which also stages the Tour de France, even though it had offered to remove the Unibet logo from its jerseys. It is suing for $6.8 million in damages.

The sports group says that permitting the team to race would leave it vulnerable to prosecution in France for aiding and abetting illegal gambling.

“It’s as if they said in a bar, ‘Beer is dangerous if you drink the other fellow’s brand but not if you drink my brand’,” McCreevy’s spokesman said. “States are free to control gambling, but it must not be discriminatory.”

McCreevy also objects to France’s flexing its muscle beyond its borders. “The Tour de France runs through Britain and Belgium and is broadcast worldwide. The French state is trying to extend its cozy arrangement to other countries,” the spokesman said.

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NETeller – To Distribute 'Frozen' US funds

Withdrawing from the US markets in January 2007, following the arrests of the Canadian founders NETeller left behind two thirds of its business.  The founders were charged with handling billions of dollars in illegal gambling proceeds.
NETeller has now agreed a plan for U.S. customers to access their money for the first time since the funds were frozen early 2007, under the agreed distribution plan it would email customers with details of when they can log on to their accounts to request a repayment.
Customers will not receive any interest and NETeller will not make any charge.
NETeller also said in a statement it was still cooperating with an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the southern district of New York.
“The company has advised the USAO that it will use its best efforts to resolve the investigation no later than July 13,” said NETeller whose shares are suspended.

LONDON, June 4 (Reuters) – Britain’s NETeller Plc (NLR.L: Quote, Profile , Research) said on Monday it had agreed to a plan for U.S. customers to access their money for the first time since the online payment processor’s U.S. funds were frozen in February.
On Feb. 8, NETeller said U.S. prosecutors had seized up to $55 million, stopping U.S. customers from accessing their money.
NETeller quit the United States in January, abandoning two thirds of its business after authorities arrested its Canadian founders. Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre were charged with handling billions of dollars in illegal gambling proceeds.
The legality of Internet gambling in the United States was ambiguous for many years but it was effectively banned last Oct. 13 when President George W. Bush signed legislation outlawing gaming financial transactions.
NETeller said in a statement on Monday that
NETeller also said in a statement it was still cooperating with an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the southern district of New York.

“The company has advised the USAO that it will use its best efforts to resolve the investigation no later than July 13,” said NETeller whose shares are suspended.

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