The WTO decision, in general terms, means that laws used by particular states to limit or forbid Internet gambling are seen as a violation of "market access" principles of the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services.

"In trade-speak, Utah's prohibition amounts to the use of a zero-quota on the supply of Internet gambling services, and that's a violation of market access," said Peter Riggs, director of the Forum on Democracy and Trade, in an interview with the Deseret Morning News earlier this year.

Another part of the GATS agreement, one not raised by Antigua's legal argument over Internet gaming, indicates the United States also made commitments to a "commercial presence."

"It's that commercial presence category which would allow foreign gambling companies to argue that they have a right to establish casinos," Riggs said.

And it is that possibility that has attorneys general across the nation, including some from gaming states like Nevada and Louisiana, worried that state laws and state regulatory authority will be shelved by international law.

The letter was signed by the attorneys general of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

---

E-mail: spang@desnews.com