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| | | January 10 - While the 'David and Goliath' saga in the online gambling world -
Antigua and Barbuda vs. the United States - has finally come to an end thanks to a
ruling by the World Trade Organization (WTO), there is still a big perception
within the industry that the US was 'let off easy'.
When the Caribbean islands and online gambling jurisdiction of Antigua and
Barbuda approached the WTO a few years ago to complain about the
United States which was violating international trade laws, little did they know that they
would eventually 'beat' the super power.
However, as victorious as the islands are, their victory is bittersweet because
the WTO only awarded trade losses against the US of $21 million per year, a
noticeably 'paltry' amount of restitution compared with the $3.4 billion the
islands have been seeking all along.
Worse still, Antigua and Barbuda can only recover these losses from horse racing
and no other forms of online gambling. And by ignoring US copyright and
other intellectual property right laws, which means the islands have been given a
'free pass' to pirate US music, films and video games.
What's more, the ruling did no favors for the millions of US online gambling
fans who were hoping that the WTO would 'force' the United States to reverse its
self-imposed online gambling ban. Instead, if anything, the ruling 'cemented'
the US government's anti-online gambling stance.
At the end of 2006, Congress passed an Act that was shortly afterwards signed
into law by President Hillbilly Bush, which was designed to prevent US citizens
from gambling online. While Congressman Barney Frank is trying to have the ban
reversed, his and his supporters chances are looking slim.
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