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April 24 - Last year the World Trade Organization ruled in favor of the tiny nation state of Antigua and Barbuda and against the USA in a historic online gambling case. Antigua argued that the USA was discriminating against Internet casinos based in their jurisdiction and the WTO agreed. The USA asked for one year so that they could implement changes to federal law and take the ruling into account. The deadline was April 3, which has come and gone without the USA making any changes whatsoever.
In fact, the USA has completely ignored the WTO ruling as though it never happened. Furthermore, when legal counsel from Antigua tried to discuss the matter with US trade representatives they were informed that there would be no more negotiations on the matter.
A month ago the WTO was informed that the US Administration was taking steps to resolve the matter. Nothing has happened. The USA has simply snubbed the WTO, and the organization's credibility as a world court is now threatened as a result.
Antigua will seek compensatory trade sanctions against the USA such as the lifting of US copyright protections, which will enable Antigua to bootleg American products to their heart's content.
This is a crucial case for the online gambling industry. The fact remains that the WTO judged the merits of the case and found in favor of Antigua. The reasons are simple: The USA considers some forms of online gambling illegal (namely online casinos that are based in other jurisdictions) but considers other forms of online gambling (such as wagering on horse racing) perfectly legal.
The USA could either make all forms of online gambling illegal, which is unlikely to happen since the horse racing lobby is very powerful in Washington, or they could legalize Internet gambling. At least $6 billion is generated by US-based online gamblers already, and that's $6 billion that is going untaxed because of America's reactionary attitude towards regulation.
It comes as no surprise that International courts of law hold little to no interest for the US government. They petition the WTO when it suits them - to whine about China for example, but feel free to ignore the same body when the rulings go against them. The chances of America respecting the rights of Antigua to free trade ("Dude, is that even a country? I thought it was like a beach or something...") is even more unlikely.
I guess the bottom line is that Antigua should be grateful that America doesn't just bomb them back into the Stone Age, because they could you know, and isn't that the most important aspect of International Relations these days?
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