The EU said the bilateral deal would provide European businesses, such as TNT of the Netherlands and Deutsche Post of Germany, with unspecified new opportunities in the US postal and courier, research and development, storage and warehouse sectors. The US had also made concessions in the testing and analysis services sector.

However, the deal, signed in Geneva, disappointed the online gambling industry, which claimed the EU had lost vital leverage in the effort to open up the $15bn-a-year US online gambling market. Millions of dollars were wiped off share values in October 2006 after the US made it illegal for credit card companies to process online gambling transactions, effectively closing the market to foreign competitors. The World Trade Organisation had ordered the US to grant compensation after it withdrew a commitment to liberalise the sector. The withdrawal came after the tiny Caribbean state of Antigua and Barbuda, which hosts a large gaming industry, brought a successful dispute case at the WTO. The WTO will rule soon on Antigua’s request for $3.4bn compensation.

A spokesman for Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner, refused to put a figure on the US offer, and said it could not be linked to the campaign for equal treatment in the US online gambling market. A spokeswoman for the US trade representative, who hatched the agreement, would also not discuss specifics but said she was confident the package provided WTO members with economic opportunities “at least as valuable” as the US gambling market. The US had also reached agreements with Canada and Japan.

Clive Hawkswood, chief executive of the Remote Gambling Association, which represents companies that say they are losing at least $4bn in revenue a year, claimed the EU had handed over its primary weapon in the fight. He said: “The Commission can still press for an opening up of the market, but the leverage of the outstanding [compensation] negotiations has been taken away.”

Mr Mandelson said he would continue to press for equal treatment and is placing hopes in legislation proposed by Barney Frank, chairman of the US House Financial Services Committee, to liberalise and regulate the online gaming industry.

gamblingplanet.org

The dispute arose after Washington announced in May last year that it would withdraw gambling from services it had opened up under a 1994 world trade deal. Under WTO rules the United States then had to offer access in other services to any of the WTO's 151 members who wanted it.

The European Union has said it reached agreement with the United States over access to postal and courier, research and development, and storage and warehouse services in compensation. Officials said the Costa Rica deal was similar to that with the European Union. Washington has reached similar deals with Japan and Canada.

However, the European Union said on Monday it was investigating whether U.S. prosecutions of foreign online gambling companies were discriminatory. That could lead to a trade dispute at the WTO. European online gambling companies such as PartyGaming and bwin Interactive Entertainment complained in December last year that the United States had singled out foreign online gambling companies when it introduced measures to cut off their access to its gaming market. The U.S. Justice Department is still investigating the activities of EU companies before it introduced those measures. The EU companies say the United States has allowed U.S. firms offering Internet horse race betting to continue operating.

gamblingplanet.org

The official added that the Las-Vegas-style casino resort MGM Grand Macao, opened on Dec. 18, recorded gross receipts of 51.5 million patacas (USD 6.6 million) in its first two days of operations. The opening of MGM Grand has added to the number of casinos in Macao to 28, including the Macao Palace floating casino that is currently closed for renovation works.

Official statistics released previously also showed that the gaming taxes collected in the first 11 months of 2007 exceeded those for the whole of last year by 34.9%, and direct gaming taxes accounted for 71.4% of the government's total revenue in this period. Macao, an hour by high-speed ferry west of Hong Kong, beat the Las Vegas Strip last year in gaming revenue.

gamblingplanet.org

“A bilateral agreement was signed in Geneva, which provides EU service suppliers with new trade opportunities in the U.S. postal and courier, research and development, storage and warehouse sectors,” the commission said in a statement.

“The U.S. also made concessions in the testing and analysis services sector,” the commission said, adding it would still try to dissuade the United States from discriminating against foreign operators.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office in Washington said the United States had reached a compensation deal with the EU, Canada and Japan. She declined to estimate how much the U.S. market openings in warehousing, technical testing, research and development and outbound international letter delivery would be worth to the three trading partners.

The United States hopes to persuade India, Costa Rica and Macau to accept similar deals, but those countries have the option over the next 45 days to ask for WTO arbitration, Hamel said. A representative of Europe's online gaming sector, which saw billions of euros of market value wiped out by the U.S. restrictions, said the announcement was a disappointment.

“The commission can still press for an opening up of the market but the leverage of the outstanding (compensation) negotiations has been taken away,” said Clive Hawkswood, chief executive of the Remote Gambling Association.

The case dates to April 2005 when the World Trade Organization ruled that a U.S. law allowing only domestic companies to provide online horse-race gambling services discriminated against foreign companies. That case was brought by Antigua, which has asked the WTO for permission to retaliate against the United States by suspending copyright protections on about $3.4 billion worth of American movies and music each year.

Mark Mendel, an attorney representing Antigua, said he still hoped for a ruling on that issue before the WTO closes down next week for holidays. “Nobody in Antigua really wanted our claim to be overshadowed by the EU,” he said.

Last year, the U.S. Congress tightened restrictions on Internet gambling by making it illegal for banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites. In May, Washington said it was retroactively excluding gambling services from market-opening commitments it made as part of a 1994 world trade deal, kicking off compensation talks with the EU and other countries including Japan and India.

gamblingplanet.org