US handed deadline on Internet gambling issue

August 19

Today, a World Trade Organization mediator gave the United States a deadline for terminating discrimination against foreign online gambling companies. The April 3, 2006 deadline has been announced after a complaint was officially filed by the island of Antigua in the Caribbean. 

On April 7th of this year, WTO judges ruled that the US ban, in the interests of public morals, can remain only as long as the prohibitions do not discriminate against the foreign companies themselves. The US has announced that it will abide by the WTO rules by amending its margins, without opening the doorway to foreign online gambling.

Companies based in Antigua such as Sportingbet Plc and BetWWTS.com, account for approximately 25% of bets in the estimated $7 billion to $12 billion online gambling industry. Antigua developed online gambling to boost its lagging economy after a series of hurricanes caused tourism in the island to slow down. The Carribean island wants access to the US gambling market. People in the US account for about 55% of online wagers.

The island nation of Antigua, with under 68,000 residents, is the smallest WTO government ever to implant a complaint, the country became victorious against US online gambling restrictions last November, when WTO judges announced the Bush administration had failed to rationalize the ban on moral grounds.