• Carve Outs In UIGEA Means Racetracks Can Offer Online Gambling To Non-US Citizens

    23 May 2007


    Bob Evans, CEO of Churchill Downs, told a group at their business luncheon that Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby could be the ‘new online casinos in the future catering to non-US citizens’.

    Mr. Evans said his company is allowed to have an online presence because of the exemption for Internet horse wagering put in the UIGEA. He emphasized his company would be allowed to offer casino and gambling games outside of horse racing if they offered them to non-US citizens.

    “Given the fact that the Kentucky Derby (and) Churchill Downs… are world renowned brands, why wouldn’t we use those brands to enter into businesses that are outside our traditional core of thoroughbred racing,” Evans said.

    These comments are inflammatory, given the US stance on the WTO ruling which sided against the US and in favor of Antigua. The US response to that ruling was to say they never intended to include gambling in the fair trade agreement, that they hold their position that online gambling is morally wrong and is not a service available to anyone in the US therefore not a reciprocal trade item.

    Great Britain should be up in arms! The US has almost single-handedly destroyed the legal gaming sector in the UK, put hundreds of people out of work, confiscated millions of dollars in customer and company funds, arrested its citizens operating lawfully in the UK and this twit tells a business group that they, a US corporation, can legally operate a casino in the UK if they want to due to the carve outs awarded them in the UIGEA.

    Your move, England.