Antigua, the Caribbean island nation accounting for a quarter of online betting, says its effort to overturn a U.S. ban on Internet gambling through the World Trade Organization is a last chance for the industry.
WTO arbitrators first backed Antigua's claim that the U.S. illegally discriminated against foreign Internet betting companies two years ago. Last month, President George W. Bush signed a law making it a criminal act for credit-card companies to collect payments for online gambling. The WTO may authorize retaliatory sanctions to the value of Antigua's losses if it finds that the U.S. hasn't complied with its decision.
In response to the new U.S. law, gambling companies including PartyGaming Plc and Gibralter-based 888 Holdings Plc have said they started merger talks after the industry lost $7 billion of market value in a day after Congress passed the legislation Sept. 30. U.S.-based gamblers accounted for half of the $12 billion Internet market worldwide last year.
``The U.S. has done absolutely nothing to comply,'' Mark Mendel, chief legal counsel for the Antiguan government, said in a phone interview from London yesterday. ``In fact, they've gone the other way. It's just bald-faced protectionism. Somebody had to take the fight, and this is really all there is left. If we lose this case then the U.S. is free to do what it wants.''
Antigua, a nation of 70,000 people and the smallest government ever to lodge a WTO complaint, scored its initial victory against U.S. online gambling restrictions in November 2004, when the WTO said the U.S. had pledged to open the industry in 1995.
The U.S. has said it's now conforming with the WTO rulings and that ``it is up to each member to decide what means it chooses to comply.'' Clarifying existing laws on interstate horseracing or federal criminal laws ``was a possible means, but not the only means, for compliance,'' the U.S. said, according to a document submitted to WTO arbitrators.
The U.S. says the prohibitions pre-dating last month's law apply to both foreign and American betting services, and the WTO's decision only applies to gambling on horseracing, which is
WTO arbitrators first backed Antigua's claim that the U.S. illegally discriminated against foreign Internet betting companies two years ago. Last month, President George W. Bush signed a law making it a criminal act for credit-card companies to collect payments for online gambling. The WTO may authorize retaliatory sanctions to the value of Antigua's losses if it finds that the U.S. hasn't complied with its decision.
In response to the new U.S. law, gambling companies including PartyGaming Plc and Gibralter-based 888 Holdings Plc have said they started merger talks after the industry lost $7 billion of market value in a day after Congress passed the legislation Sept. 30. U.S.-based gamblers accounted for half of the $12 billion Internet market worldwide last year.
``The U.S. has done absolutely nothing to comply,'' Mark Mendel, chief legal counsel for the Antiguan government, said in a phone interview from London yesterday. ``In fact, they've gone the other way. It's just bald-faced protectionism. Somebody had to take the fight, and this is really all there is left. If we lose this case then the U.S. is free to do what it wants.''
Antigua, a nation of 70,000 people and the smallest government ever to lodge a WTO complaint, scored its initial victory against U.S. online gambling restrictions in November 2004, when the WTO said the U.S. had pledged to open the industry in 1995.
The U.S. has said it's now conforming with the WTO rulings and that ``it is up to each member to decide what means it chooses to comply.'' Clarifying existing laws on interstate horseracing or federal criminal laws ``was a possible means, but not the only means, for compliance,'' the U.S. said, according to a document submitted to WTO arbitrators.
The U.S. says the prohibitions pre-dating last month's law apply to both foreign and American betting services, and the WTO's decision only applies to gambling on horseracing, which is
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