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| | | April 2 - A recent ruling made by the World Trade Organization (WTO) may result
in commercial sanctions against the United States for failing to comply with a
previous ruling to alter its online gambling ban that is unfairly affecting
offshore online casinos.
Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the WTO released a 215-page ruling that supports
the Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda which relies heavily on online
gambling for much of its revenue as well as job provision for hundreds
of islanders.
The WTO said that Washington is free to maintain its online gambling
restrictions just as long as it amends its laws to apply equally to US operators offering remote horse race betting, which currently it does not.
A US Trade Representative spokesperson acknowledged that 'the WTO ruling was a setback'.
Said Antiguan Finance Minister Errol Cort in response to the ruling,
'The WTO ruling vindicates everything we have been saying for years about the
discriminatory trade practices exercised by the US in this area, and we look
forward to its opening its markets.'
However, it is unlikely that the US will ease access to companies with servers
licensed in Antigua and Barbuda, a nation whose legal efforts were backed mainly
by British online gambling operators.
The US has still not said if it will appeal the recent WTO ruling. However, if a final
ruling is made to uphold Antigua's claims, the island nation will be free to
seek trade sanctions against the US for non-compliance.
In that case, to avoid the penalties, the US government would either have to permit Americans to gamble online at offshore-based websites, or
eliminate exceptions for off-track betting on horses, including over the
Internet, that is permitted under the United States 1978 Interstate Horseracing Act.
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