1 - Yes UIGEA unfairly discriminated against offshore gaming company. The above
ID: 372834 • Letter: 1
Question
1 - Yes UIGEA unfairly discriminated against offshore gaming company. The above case says that the regulations and laws were not applied to the online horse betting, but it had different rules and regulations for offshore online betting companies, which is a straight seen unfair discrimination.
2 - I personally think legalising the betting industry would be a better solution rather than closing it and imposing different rules on them. Even if the betting industry is closed, people would find a way to restart it illegally, which would rather create more problems and issues, rather than solving it. The illegal betting would also give rise to criminal activities. If the betting is made legal, then there is a chance that people might contribute to a social ill, but it would be much lesser in intensity if we compare it to that of closing it. Plus by legalising it would help in protecting rights of the consumer, it would help them identify that the company is legal or not, and after legalisation taxes charged would bring revenue to govt, so it would be a win-win situation for all.
3 - The regulation of Online gambling should be a federal issue, there is a chance that the companies might violate the consumers right and even they might indulge in unlawful practices, which would not be good for the country as a whole. to regulate all these matters, federal laws to be prepared and they should regulate the online gambling.
Explanation / Answer
actative CHAPTER 5 • THE POLITICAL, LEGAL, AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENTS 171 press. CASE 5-3 willing Gambling Goes Global on the Internet ing to s help egons ner tancy cilvia- On the Indian sub public and privat and long tradition of ded neet. ween n of eign be pite & = ne ankind has engaged in gambling for many centuries. Marcheologists have unearthed six-sided dice dating from around A.C. Ancient Egyptians played a game resembling backgammon. argument: Even as it maintains a number of federal laws that prohibit he Indian subcontinent more than 3,500 years ago, there were offshore Internet gaming, the United States exempts off-track bet- and private gambling houses, dice games, and betting on ting on horse races over the Internet from these same federal laws. between animals. Farther east, Asian cultures also have a rich According to the suit, this situation benefits domestic interests at the expense of offshore casinos. ng tradition of gambling. As cultural artifacts, playing cards had In 2005, a WTO compliance panel ruled that the United States their primitive origins in Asia. had, in fact, discriminated between foreign and domestic suppliers When Europeans arrived in North America, they found that the of gambling services. But the panel gave the United States an op- sative peoples had been gambling in a variety of ways for centuries. portunity to show that the prevention of offshore betting was neces- of course, the European settlers and colonists were no strangers to sary as a means of protecting "public order and public morals." In ambling themselves. They brought with them a penchant for gam- March 2007, the WTO ruled that the continuing exemption for online ing in various forms, including card playing, dice games, and lotter- betting on horse racing in the United States unfairly discriminated ies. Even the Puritan settlers played cards. against foreign casinos. Further, the United States could restrict online Much of America's Revolutionary War was funded from lottery gambling only as long as its laws were equally applied to American proceeds. Likewise, several of the nascent nation's new universities, and foreign operators, the ruling stated. including Columbia, Yale, and Princeton, were founded with substan- The WTO ruling allowed Antigua to seek trade sanctions tal financial assistance from lotteries. America's connection to gam- against the United States. Although Antigua may not have the eco- bling has continued throughout its Civil War, two World Wars, and nomic muscle to bring about meaningful trade sanctions against the emergence of Nevada as the home of iconic "Las Vegas-style" the United States, it is possible that other countries affected by the gambling. United States ban, including Great Britain, may also petition the WTO for relief. Gambling in the Digital Era Today, gambling has gone global. This is not surprising, given gam- From Regulation to Enforcement bling's prevalence through time around the world. The Internet Age In 2006, U.S. authorities arrested David Caruthers, the British-born is creating new opportunities for gamblers as well as challenges for chief executive of Costa Rica-based BetonSports. Agents intercepted those wanting to limit the spread of and access to gambling. It is no Caruthers while he was in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport en route from London to Costa Rica. In a 26-page indictment, the U.S. Department longer necessary to be physically present in a casino or at a horse of Justice (DOJ) charged Caruthers and others with multiple counts track to place bets on blackjack, sporting events, and horse racing. of racketeering, conspiracy, and fraud. Caruthers was later convicted "Virtual" casinos now offer gamblers a wide range of online gaming and sentenced to 33 months in prison. opportunities. The U.S. government has adopted a variety of measures to make In the 1990s, online casinos proliferated as Internet entrepreneurs Internet gambling in the United States illegal, or at least make access sought to satisfy the worldwide demand for online gaming. Rodolphe to it more difficult. For example, in the fall of 2006, U.S. President Durand, a strategy professor and author of The Pirate Organization, George W. Bush signed into law the SAFE Port Act, which includes has noted that, in Europe, these organizations originally operated in the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). This mea- the "pirate space" as offshore activities because gambling "onshore" sure prohibits U.S. banks, credit card companies, and other financial was illegal. Only later were the rules, regulations, and laws framed intermediaries from sending money to or receiving money from off- to allow a legitimate industry to flourish in Great Britain, France, and shore casinos. Thus, the law makes it difficult for gamblers to fund other European countries. Today, in fact, these gambling companies their offshore accounts. are based outside the United States because of questions about the Adding to the complexity of online poker's legal status is the legality of such activity under state and federal law. Some, including fact that, in 49 of the 50 American states, online poker is not il- Gibraltar-based Party Digital Entertainment Plc and 888 Holdings Plc, legal. Specifically, federal law allows states to legalize and regulate are publicly traded corporations. online poker games as long as the players and the virtual casinos are physically situated inside state borders. The State of Washington is the Industry Regulation in the United States exception; in 2006, the state legislature passed a law that makes it a felony for the state's residents to play online poker. Despite its long history of gambling, the United States has also Against this backdrop of legislative maneuvering, gray areas, and engaged in strict regulation of the industry. The surge in Internet legal red tape, some online sites abandoned the U.S. market. Others, gaming triggered efforts to ban such activity and to prosecute the such as Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, stayed. Ultimately, an estimated principals of the so-called offshore online casinos. This regulatory ac- 1.8 million professional and amateur poker players in the United ion has angered governments in various countries, especially smaller States were playing online each year. On a typical night, as many as countries where the online casinos are based. One country, Antigua 100,000 people logged on to Full Tilt Poker, Another 200,000 players and Barbuda (Antigua), filed a claim with the WTO in 2004 arguing were typically active on PokerStars. U.S. laws and policies pertaining to online gambling violate the In addition, large numbers of Poker fans were tuning in to TV ms of a fair trade agreement known as the General Agreement shows such as ESPN's World Series of Poker and Poker After Dark Trade in Services (GATS), Antigua claimed that the United States on NBC (see Exhibit 5-16). Significant advertising dollars for these criminated against foreign suppliers of "recreational services," including Internet gaming. The claim was based im was based on the following shows came from online poker companies. In some instances, the
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.