U.S. needs online gambling

Will international pressure from the formidable: 27-nation European Union finally push the United States into legalizing Web bookies and online casinos? Maybe. And maybe sooner than later. A senior EU delegation was in Washington, D.C., last week to meet with representatives of Congress, the U.S. Justice Department and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, seeking a deal that would avoid a formal EU complaint to the World Trade Organization. The U.S. almost certainly would prefer to avoid another go-around on Internet gambling before that international tribunal. After a four-year battle, the WTO last year declared the U.S. guilty of restraining Internet gambling trade emanating from the Caribbean island-nation of Antigua and Barbuda, one of the smallest nations on Earth. Web casinos that still are boldly doing business with Americans are finding creative ways around the acts outlawing of online gambling financial transactions that also deputized the protesting U.S. banking industry as the nations Web gambling police. The devil is always in the details, however, and the federal government has yet to issue guidelines spelling out how U.S. banks are supposed to accomplish that gargantuan task. Congress - meanwhile, is debating repeal or a rewrite of the flawed act and whether to finance a study of the Internet gambling phenomenon that some hope will serve as the stepping-off point for legalization, regulation and taxation of the industry. It is an intolerable dilemma for gamblers. For better or worse, Web gambling is legal and regulated in scores of nations. In the EU alone, the industry purports to employ more than 15,000 people and generate more than $3 billion a year in revenues. Worldwide, the industry is estimated to generate $15 billion a year. The legal and regulated Web gambling gravy train left the station years ago. It is not going to derail. The issue today is whether Uncle Sam will bow to reality and climb aboard. Like i say before: Maybe sooner than later.