(MCT) CHICAGO—In the U.S., it is OK to bet on the ponies, but making an online poker wager is against the law.

You can buy a lottery ticket online in some states, but you cannot legally bet on which team will win the upcoming NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. You can drive to a casino to play blackjack, but a game of “21” online is only for fun.

This inconsistency of how and where bets are placed is at the heart of European gambling sites’ complaint that U.S. gambling laws infringe upon international trade rules.

The Remote Gambling Association, which represents European operators, asked the European Union to investigate U.S. laws forbidding online gambling earlier this week, a move that could lead to a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization.

Key to the dispute is a question of whether or not online betting companies are unfairly being forced out of the lucrative U.S. market. In the U.S., wagering on horse racing is allowed across state lines.

In Illinois, for example, there are 16 sanctioned off-track betting locations, including one in Niles that has a drivethrough window to accept bets. Placing bets online is illegal in Illinois.

“You have to go to an OTB, casino or a race course to place a bet,” said a spokeswoman for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Those within the U.S. find fault with this system, as well.

“I don’t think these laws were particularly well thought out,” said Anthony Cabot, a gambling expert in the Las Vegas office of Lewis and Roca LLP Lawyers.

As with most everything with gaming, money is at the center of this debate. The legal online gaming market is estimated to be worth more than $15.5 billion a year. Illegal online gambling for casino games and poker in the U.S. alone is worth about an additional $15 billion.

That does not include sports wagering, which Cabot called “much higher.”

This time of year is prime time for such sports betting as the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, beginning Thursday.

The current dispute, which could lead to trade sanctions but will not overturn U.S. gambling laws, is essentially a follow-up to a 2004 case with the Caribbean island of Antigua.

In that dispute, the U.S. lost on every point except for the “morals exception,” which allows a country to prohibit something against its moral code even if that discriminates against another country’s trade concerns, Cabot said. Now the gaming group is asking the EU how the U.S. defines such gambling morals.

An EU investigation could last seven months according to a recent statement from EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

It will then present its findings in an investigation report which could lead to the launch of WTO proceedings.

© 2008 McClatchy-Tribune News