Friday - May 04, 2007
U.S. Keeps Internet Gambling Ban
We, at The Virtuous Republic, have watched with interest Senator Barney Frank's attempts to legalize online internet gambling.
One inherent characteristic of any great republic, is that it promotes virtue in its citizens. Allowing internet gambling to resurface would of course do the opposite. Allowing internet gambling would allow the vice of gambling to move from the casinos into almost every home across America. While a select few can control their impulses, there are many more people who become addicted to gambling. Imagine how bad it would be if one could gamble from their own home computer.
It is good to see that some in our government ( in contrast to Barney Frank), appreciate the role that a republic can have in forming virtuous habits in its citizenry.
The United States will maintain a ban on Internet gambling services despite an adverse World Trade Organization ruling, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Friday.
The move opens the door for other WTO members -- ranging from tiny Antigua and Barbuda to the 27-nation European Union -- to seek potential damages at the WTO.
However, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John Veroneau told reporters the United States did not believe there was any basis for other countries to receive compensation.
Veroneau argued that a case brought by Antigua and Barbuda several years ago took advantage of a drafting error made by the United States as part of its commitments in the early 1990s to open its recreational services market.
Even though U.S. law has banned interstate gambling for decades, the United States failed to make clear its commitments "did not extend to gambling," Veroneau said.
Having exhausted other options to fight the case, the United States will exercise a rarely used right under WTO rules to modify its 14-year-old services commitments and explicitly exclude gambling, Veroneau said.
Link: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2007-05-04T213555Z_01_WAT007427_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-TRADE-GAMBLING.xml&src=rss&rpc=22
Author: Machiavellian
Technorati Tags: Internet Gambling
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