COSTA RICA AND THE US GAMING BAN
Posted on March 26, 2008 - Filed Under NEWS
The gaming ban that the political and legislative branches of government enforced in the US territory and their residents has caused a long and bitter dispute and controversy at all levels of society, political and economical spheres.
Most countries that have online gaming sites that used to receive U.S. citizens and do businesses with them are seeking to appeal this decision or to have some sort of retribution from the US government as a penalty.
The latest of these countries is Costa Rica who finally reached a compensation settlement for being one of the internet gaming foreign companies banned off from US gaming commerce despite having some of the best online casinos.
According to the press release published on Costa Rican newspaper: The Tico Times, this Central American country was awarded with greater access to other service markets including those of research, development, storage, technical testing and analysis.
It seems that this agreement is similar to the one granted to the European Union for the same reasons late in 2007 when they were granted new trade opportunities in the US Postal and Courier, research, development, storage and warehouse ambits.
OF course, this is not the end that will be heard on terms of peace offerings from the US government to other countries governments as well as their casino owners. The next ones on the list are Japan and Canada, while Macau and India are still on hold.
Despite that Costa Rica is satisfied with the peace offering, the EU has announced that a deep scrutiny on US laws will be done to verify if this prohibition law stands against international trade rules, in such a case, they will act accordingly.
Thus, it is safe to say that the EU views the US government peace offering as a good thing but separate from the ongoing investigation they are currently conducting as it seems that some discrimination against EU companies is taking place.
On this matter, the one sided decision of the US has caused a descent of millions of euros in stock markets around the world and still allow US based horse racing gambling online sites to continue operational.
Furthermore, EU authorities are not pleased with prosecution carried against their casino managers and teller founders especially since the US counterparts are not being prosecuted in ay way or form.
In the meantime, EU authorities are conducting their investigation that should be concluded in a 5-month period, after which the EU will present its complaints against the US at the WTO to be arranged.
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