At the end of July, a group of trade officials from the EU will have a discussion with officials from the United States about the current state of online gambling in the US.  The discussions will center around market restrictions and prosecutions related to online gambling.  The reason for this discussion is that through the eyes of European interests, these practices seem to be blatantly discriminatory and restrictive.

These discussions at the end of the month will come after a failed attempt last month to establish a dialog between the EU and the United States.  In June, the EU had created a questionnaire for American officials to answer.  This questionnaire addressed topics such as the forced exclusion of many gambling companies based in the EU and the reasons behind specific prosecutions by the US.  In total, the questionnaire was over five thousand words long.

While the EU expected to get some definitive answers from the United States on this topic, they were extremely disappointed by the response they received from the US.  Instead of answering the questions presented by the European Union, the United States decided to ignore the questionnaire and send a short dismissal about the focus of the questionnaire.  Written by Susan Schwab (an official in the US Trade Representative's office), the response was only two pages long. 

The first page was a cover sheet, while the second page of the response simply stated that there was "no basis for any allegation of 'discriminatory enforcement' of US gambling laws."  Because the EU specifically created their questionnaire as a result of their feelings that there is indeed a basis for discriminatory enforcement of the gambling laws in the United States, they were far from being satisfied with the brief response they received.  When the European Union meets with the United States, the EU delegation will be led by Peter Mandelson, who is the Trade Commissioner of the European Union.