30 states want power to regulate gambling

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Officials want to protect states’ rights to regulate gambling

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly 30 states are joining forces to urge the U.S. government to keep Internet gambling out of international trade agreements.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff helped organize the effort by states to protect their gambling laws from actions by the World Trade Organization.

Shurtleff and 28 other attorneys general released a letter Tuesday petitioning U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman to redouble efforts to protect the legal rights of states to ban or regulate forms of gambling.

Their plea came after a conflicted ruling by a World Trade Organization appeals panel in April.

The panel ruled the United States could keep some Internet gambling restrictions to “protect public morals or maintain public order.” But the same 138-page decision opened a door for Internet gambling by finding fault with a federal law regulating interstate horse racing gambling.

The panel said the United States failed to show that the Interstate Horseracing Act was applied equally to foreign and domestic remote betting services.

That left the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda claiming U.S. authorities must treat online casinos in the same way as traditional gambling outlets.

Shurtleff fears the WTO decision could erode state powers to regulate gaming.

“Antigua has no business trying to write Utah’s gambling laws. The trade representative needs to know that we have too much at stake,” Shurtleff said in a statement issued Tuesday.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.