D'Amato Sees WTO Claims as Wild Card in Internet Gambling Fight

The chairman of the Poker Players Alliance, Al D'Amato, told the New York Post that the U.S. looks "like the ugly American" in the way its handled its WTO treaty obligations and that massive compensation claims by US allies may strengthen lobbying efforts to overturn the prohibition of Internet gambling.

"In a matter of months, you're going to see billions of dollars in trade sanctions coming down against the United States," the former US Senator told The Post.

"Then, I believe we will start to have a profoundly new and different group lobbying, saying you've got to stop this prohibition [on Internet gambling]," he said. "We look like the ugly American."

The WTO ruled last December that it was illegal for the US to target Internet gambling without applying the same rules to US-based operators of remote betting on horse and dog racing. After the ruling, Washington declared it would remove Internet gambling from its WTO treaty obligations, which pissed off our allies and resulted in billions of dollars worth of compensation claims filed against the US by Japan, Australia, Canada, the European Union, India, Antigua, Macau and Costa Rica.

In related news, if you missed Howard Lederer and some lady who needs a good bangin' on CNBC talking about Internet poker, watch the video after the jump below or here.

Source article: New York Post - Poker Faces Weak Hand

Photo of Bar Rafaeli from this year's SI Swimsuit issue for reasons that have nothing to do with any of the above.

Comments

[JamesAt15]

Grrr... watching these sound-bite faceoff segments on anything is frustrating enough, moreso when it's something important. Unfortunately I think Howard did not come across well. That... woman... at least knows how to work the game. Smile condescendingly, make short sweeping statements to stab at your opponent, knowing full well they won't have the opportunity to pick them full of holes and expose them as b.s.

Hopefully the real progress is going on behind the scenes with the lawmakers and power-holders, since nonsense tv shorts like this aren't going to enlighten or convince anyone intelligent enough to manage filling out one of those confusing butterfly ballots. But I suppose appearing on these shows are the dues you pay on the Washington circuit.

[Crow]

haha, she does need a good bangin, and a punch in the mouth.