Back in 2006, the United States passed legislation that made it illegal for credit card companies and banks to make payments to online gambling sites—regardless of whether those sites were actually U.S. businesses or not. The law effectively shut down (legal) online gambling in the United States, and took away one of the world’s largest gambling markets from gaming sites. Companies in Europe were hit particularly hard, losing billions of euros in revenue and market value.
Earlier this month, the European Commission launched an investigation into U.S. Internet gambling laws, and now says in a preliminary report that the 2006 U.S. law violates World Trade Organization rules by hampering trade.
