The European Commission dealt a blow to European online gaming companies today when it accepted a US offer of openings in other sectors as compensation for closing its gambling market to foreign firms.
European companies such as PartyGaming and bwin Interactive Entertainment had hoped the European Union executive might shun a settlement and fight on instead to restore their ability to operate in the world's biggest market.
Shares in PartyGaming were down 4.1 per cent at 29 pence at 1017 GMT and bwin stock was down 2.1 per cent at €26.09.
"A bilateral agreement was signed in Geneva, which provides EU service suppliers with new trade opportunities in the US postal and courier, research and development, storage and warehouse sectors," the Commission said in a statement. "The US also made concessions in the testing and analysis services sector."
The Commission said it would still press the United States for "a non-discriminatory policy towards Internet gambling".
The case dates to April 2005 when the World Trade Organisation ruled that a US law allowing only domestic companies to provide online horse-race gambling services discriminated against foreign companies.
Last year, the US Congress tightened restrictions on Internet gambling by making it illegal for banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites. And in May, Washington announced 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.
A spokesman for Austria's bwin said the company had not expected the EU-US talks to yield more at this point but was confident the EU Commission would continue to push for a regulated opening of the US Internet gambling market.