European officials will meet with members of the U.S government next month as part of a series of interviews in preparation for a possible trade dispute to the UIGEA. The Remote Gambling Association (RGA) criticizes the U.S online gambling restrictions augmenting that the implementation of the UIGEA has an impact on the gambling industry, which is progressively affected by decreasing stock values and profit reductions. The gambling bill approved by the U.S congress in 2006 restricts banks and financial institutions and makes illegal to provide service to online gambling companies including online poker sites, sportsbooks and online casinos. The situation pushed dozens of gambling companies to withdrawal from the U.S. market, causing a fall in stock prices and leaving the companies with millions of dollars in loses. According to RGA Chief Executive Clive Hawkswood, companies such as Party Gaming, a gambling group that manages PartyPoker, Party Bets and PartyCasino, have lost over $7.6 in stock value since the UIGEA was implemented.

 “For the publicly listed companies, the immediate effect (of the law) was to wipe hundreds of millions of dollars off their share values,” Hawkswood said.

The European Commission delivered questionnaires to several House and Senate committees and U.S. agencies looking to gather as much information as possible regarding the UIGEA. These actions could take the E.U to fill another WTO arbitration, however, some consider that the EU is only looking to pressure the U.S Department of Justice to ease its enforcement actions.

The RGA believes that the Department of Justice has no legal reasons to go after its members for services offered before the implementation of the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The RGA claims that before 2006 the law didn’t establish that online gambling services were illegal in the U.S. On the other hand, the U.S. government says that gambling has always been illegal and that the UIGEA was a measure to keep financial institutions and banks from offer services to online gaming companies.

“The fact that DoJ continues to threaten enforcement action against EU companies while apparently taking no action against U.S. companies, such as those offering horserace betting, is an additional concern because the EU has identified that as discriminatory action which constitutes an unfair trade barrier,” Hawkswood said.

Experts say that it will be hard for the EU to fill a complaint against the U.S. In December 2007 the E.U and the U.S made a deal that fundamentally allows the U.S. to give a different treatment to offshore gambling firms. The U.S. and the EU reached an agreement on these concessions late last year, and a U.S. trade official said the EU accepted that deal and believes the investigation will not change the concession agreement.