While Rep. Shelley Berkley and 60 co-sponsors introduced a bill calling for a one-year study on internet gambling by the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Trade Representative’s office said it will use the WTO procedures for clarifying the US commitment to open its market to recreational services.
According to US officials, the Antigua’s WTO case took advantage of a drafting error made by the United States, which never intended to include gambling when the GATS agreement was signed back in 1993.
Deputy United States Trade Representative John K. Veroneau commented: “Unfortunately, in the early 1990s, when the United States was drafting its international commitments to open its market to recreational services, we did not make it clear that these commitments did not extend to gambling.”
“US laws banning interstate gambling have been in place for decades … and back in 1993 no WTO Member could have reasonably thought that the United States was agreeing to commitments in direct conflict with its own laws,” he added. “Clearly that was an oversight in the drafting.”
“The process we are starting today would allow us to clarify our schedule and make clear that we did not intend and do not intend to have gambling included in our services agreement.”
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