and an unfavorable US reaction the the WTO ruling

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Don’t bet that U.S. will lose
It’s absurd that U.S. efforts to regulate gambling are treated as violations of international trade rules
Monday, November 15, 2004
T win-island nation Antigua and Barbuda (population 67,000) wrestled the United States to a takedown last week at the 148-nation World Trade Organization in a dispute about online gambling. But don’t bet against the United States even though it’s behind the tiny Caribbean state in the early rounds.

A WTO panel agreed with Antigua that a U.S. ban on online gambling is an “arbitrary and unjustifiable discrimination between countries” or a “disguised restriction on trade.” The justification: The list of mutual trade commitments the United States made when joining the WTO in 1995 included the phrase “other recreational services” and did not expressly exclude gambling.

This legal thread is too weak to support what U.S. officials properly called a “deeply flawed” decision. The federal government and the states have long records of regulating gambling in order to protect public morals and public order — a right so obvious that it wasn’t raised in the trade negotiation.

Also, although states permit various gambling activities, the federal rules against Internet gambling apply equally to U.S. and foreign operators — which undercuts claims that the nation is discriminating against trading partners.

If the United States loses on appeal, it should exercise its right under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Services to revise its supposed trade commitment and exclude gambling.