In the meantime, offshore operators like the Gibraltar-based PartyGaming, and the Costa Rica-based Paradise Poker, a subsidiary of the London-based Sportingbet, continue to grow. Though some Online Casino businesses, like the Internet casino subsidiary of the British betting shop Ladbrokes, say they decline to do business with U.S. bettors, plenty of Web sites are happy to take Americans' money.

Though Washington made it more difficult for American online gamblers a few years ago, persuading many credit card issuers to block such transactions, Internet payment systems like Neteller, based on the Isle of Man, have stepped into the breach. But PayPal, a similar payment system owned by eBay, will not process these transactions. While the United States is the biggest market for Internet gambling - Tottenham, the consultant, estimates that 70 percent of all online wagers originate there - the business is growing in Europe and Asia.

British and Irish gambling companies are lobbying the European Commission to include the industry in new rules aimed at creating a single market for services across the 25-member bloc. The European Court of Justice, in a decision two years ago involving the British bookmaker Stanleybet that was similar to the WTO's recent ruling, said that EU countries could block foreign access to their gambling markets, but only to protect citizens, not to defend state-owned gambling monopolies. In Britain, the betting shops that seem to have a presence on every "high street" have long been allowed to offer online wagers on sports, for instance. The new gambling act, along with legitimizing and regulating online casino gambling, will permit the building of at least one Las Vegas-style mega-casino, too. A number of online gambling companies are considering initial public stock offerings, alongside a handful that are already publicly traded.