
Gambling Dispute With a Tiny Country Puts U.S. in a Bind - pg
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/business/worldbusiness/23gamble.html?ex=1345521600&en=06f9d1c84a864017&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
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mattmaroon
Guess I have to upvote that, since I've been following the story for years and
now have a vested interest in the outcome.

>>Complying with the W.T.O. ruling, Professor Jackson said, would require
Congress and the Bush administration either to reverse course and permit
Americans to place bets online legally with offshore casinos or, equally
unlikely, impose an across-the-board ban on all forms of Internet gambling --
including the online purchase of lottery tickets, participation in Web-based
pro sports fantasy leagues and off-track wagering on horse racing.<<

The rest could go to hell in a handbasket as far as the government is
concerned, but off-track wagering is a massive industry. The lobbying there is
just too strong.

Also Americans can place bets legally with off-shore casinos (in most states
there is no law against it). It's just illegal for banks to process the
payments.

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rms
So how do you think this will be settled? The easiest and most logical thing
to do is to allow the banks to process the off-shore casino transactions but
I'm afraid that Bush would rather take down the WTO as one of his last major
actions.

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mattjaynes
This reminds me of when Shawn Fanning of Napster visited my university in
2000. He came along with some corporate guys that seemed like his body guards
and filters for anything he said. The discussion revolved around the whole
Napster debate of course and the main business guy said they wanted to start
charging a couple of dollars per song to make it legal. When time came for
questions, I asked why they didn't just move their operations to a country
where they would be within the legal limits to continue Napster as it was. His
answer was basically "we just don't want to", which wasn't very satisfying.
Now after allofmp3.com made their millions, I wonder if they regret not doing
something like that. Of course, I'm sure there were compelling factors that
would prevent well-known american businessmen from circumventing the system in
that manner. Looks like Mendel doesn't suffer from the same limitations.

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daniel-cussen
Imagine the WTO lets Antigua disregard (it's not a violation if it's legal)
intellectual property rights. That might be a nail in the coffin for the movie
industry.

