8 6 June 2009

News:

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) expressed surprise at the EU Commission's 10 June release of a report concluding that US gambling laws breach its obligations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), as it understood it had excluded gambling services from its GATS obligations.

The EU Commission has said that it supports the principle of sporting organisations selling a 'right to bet' to betting operators.

The gambling industry has averted a proposed £19 million statutory levy to tackle problem gambling by agreeing to increase its voluntary contributions from £3 million per year to £5 million per year. UK Minister for Sport, Gerry Sutcliffe, proposed the statutory levy following difficulties in raising £3 million this year. The industry will now contribute £15 million over three years to tackle research into problem gambling, education and treatment.

Features:

The responses to the EU Commission's report into whether US restrictions on gambling constitute an illegal trade barrier, from the industry and from the US administration, again illustrate that the priorities of us Europeans and our American cousins differ.

The Gambling Act 2005 was originally designed to update laws, protect the public and encourage gambling businesses to be based here. In all three cases it has been found wanting.

The UK Government recently announced that it would be reviewing online gambling policies in Great Britain, including advertising; support by offshore companies for problem gambling related research, education and treatment; and the possible extension of the horserace betting levy to offshore bookmakers. Clive Hawkswood, Chief Executive of the Remote Gambling Association, examines issues with the policies.

Minnesota's Department of Public Safety's Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division recently notified eleven internet service providers (ISPs) that it was withdrawing a notice which asked them to block access to 200 online gambling sites. Jon L. Fleischaker and Edward T. Depp, of Dinsmore & Shohl LLP - representatives of the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA) - examine why the Wire Act, the legal reasoning behind the notice, cannot be used to ask ISPs to block access to online gambling sites.

PartyGaming recently agreed to pay $105 million over three years in a non-prosecution agreement with the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Linda J. Shorey and colleagues at K&L Gates LLP examine the Agreement and the requirements PartyGaming must meet to avoid US prosecution.

Recently, there have been increasing moves by sporting organisations and governments to push through regulation requiring gambling operators to pay for information and material relating to sporting events. Marcos Charif, a Solicitor with Harris Hagan, examines the history of jurisprudence on this subject, the difficulty in setting a price for information that doesn't attract IP protection and proposed regulatory solutions to the problem, as well as proposing new solutions.

A number of US States have proposed the legalisation of online gambling, while at the Federal level, a number of bills have been introduced that would amend online gambling legislation. Brian W. Smith and Angela Angelovska-Wilson, of Latham & Watkins LLP, examine these developments, including conditions introduced under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that might also stimulate change, as well as support for and opposition to the legalisation of online gambling.

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