The EU Concludes its US Poker Investigation
Ever since the US decided to start its crusade against online poker by enacting the UIGEA, there have been several worldwide organizations looking into the legality of the matter. Aruba already won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the US after the small island was able to prove that the US’s anti-poker laws hurt them. And there may be more to follow since the European Commission has completed their investigation into the matter.
The EU’s report won’t be released until later this month, however, it has already been speculated the report will find that the US did indeed violate global trading laws through their efforts to cut European poker sites off from their residents. Since the EU believes that the US violated global trading laws it has been said that they will seek to take this case to the World Trade Organization later this year should this action be needed.
However, the EU would rather have the matter resolved between them and the US so they are hoping that Washington will begin talks to lessen or remove their anti-poker laws before this happens. If the US does begin these talks then it would probably mean that the very unpopular UIGEA laws would finally be removed or that there would be agreements between America and countries housing major poker rooms.
If the US refuses to do this then it will probably see the EU taking action to secure previous financial losses. And this could amount to millions of dollars since poker rooms have lost a substantial amount of potential earnings due to the UIGEA. Still though, I don’t think most poker rooms have been doing too badly since the entire industry is booming.