According to numerous news sources, the Office of the US Trade Representative has requested the postponement of planned meetings with a European Union (EU) delegation to discuss US online gambling policies. Scheduled to take place next week in Washington, DC, the meetings were to consider accusations that EU-based online gambling firms were being unfairly discriminated against under the White House’s Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006.

The European Union (EU) does not know if Gran Scala project will really come true, so it does not believe it is necessary, for the moment, to investigate if it fits in with legality in every aspect. The EU has made that statement after the political party Izquierda Unida (IU) asked this large leisure project planned for Spain to be watched by European authorities. IU spokesman in the Court of Aragón, Adolfo Barrena, talked before the Commission of Petitions of the Euro Chamber.

In France, Budget Minister Eric Woerth has announced that the Government of President Nicolas Sarkozy is looking to open the market to gambling firms from elsewhere in the European Union next year or by the start of 2010. Woerth told French daily newspaper Le Parisien that he expects the government to complete plans this year regarding a test phase in 2009 or 2010 and that private betting providers licensed to operate under French regulations will be subject to the same conditions and tax policies as Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU), the current monopoly betting operator.

Brussels - The European Union launched an investigation on Monday into whether U.S. prosecutions of foreign online gambling companies were discriminatory, possibly paving the way for action at the World Trade Organisation. European online gambling companies, such as PartyGaming and bwin Interactive Entertainment, complained in December that the U.S. Justice Department crackdown had singled out foreign companies.