United States—Measures Affecting the Cross-Border Supply of Gambling and Betting Services
Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization
WT/DS285/AB/R (2005)
The United States' GATS schedule committed to "other recreational services (except sporting)" without listing cross-border limitations, and a WTO panel found U.S. laws banning internet gambling, including the Interstate Wire Act, Illegal Gambling Business Act, and Interstate Horseracing Act, violated those GATS commitments; the United States appealed, arguing gambling fell under an excluded "sporting services" category or, alternatively, that the laws fell within GATS's public-morals exception.
Whether, under the General Agreement on Trade in Services, a nation may implement measures to protect public morals as long as the measures are necessary and do not unjustifiably discriminate against other nations.