"Online Gambling - Is This Leading to Yet Another US-EU Trade Argument?"

The United States government may be trying to maintain a policy that labels Internet gambling as an illegal activity but Britain, in its desire to profit from the billions being made in the online gambling industry, is heading precisely in the opposite direction and plans to make online gambling legal.

It is expected that this action will only the U.S. Government that is arguing that such online casino businesses are especially susceptible to money laundering schemes. The British have responded to this argument by reasoning that this is exactly why the industry needs to be legalized. Legalization they argue would make regulation and control of the industry possible and at the same time reduce its appeal to criminal elements.

The U.S. is not alone in voicing this problem with Britain’s position regarding online gambling, though, since there are other European countries as well, that are opposed to the legalization of online gambling. There are some European countries where the casinos are state managed. This means that those governments have a great deal at stake financially with regard to these domestic casinos. It can be argued that if Internet gambling were to become legal, money that is now being spent at domestic, land-based brick and mortar casinos will be ultimately diverted to online casinos.

It does not some however, to in reality make all that much difference if online gambling is legal or is not legal since millions of Europeans as well as Americans have already started gambling online. There is an estimated 20 million gamblers online in the U.S. alone who are making bets over the Internet on anything from sports books, to bingo, to increasingly popular poker.