Congress Getting Worried Over UIGEA

December 12, 2007

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has the case between the United States and Antigua at an arbitration panel, so that it can be decided what is best and what is legal under the terms of their business and how it relates to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act or UIGEA. However, time for the ruling is at hand, and many wonder where it will leave both Antigua and the US.

The WTO is supposed to make a ruling on Antigua’s $3.4 million claim against the US in relation to their UIGEA which has taken away millions of dollars from the country. Antigua depends on the online gambling revenues that come through the US, and if it is illegal then the country loses large sums of money.

If the WTO rules in favor of Antigua, or does not rule at all, the tiny country will be taking billions of dollars in trade sanctions as will several other WTO members, including the European Union. Many think that there is a good chance that the US will lose this one, not only because we broke the treaty by passing the law, but because we have been so defiant in the face of the WTO.

Whether or not you think that online gambling is wrong, what is more wrong is making other countries stand by the rulings of the WTO and then turning around and saying that those laws don’t belong to you. This is exactly what the US did, and this is why not only is Antigua coming after us but so are seven other WTO members.

When cornered in regards to the UIGEA, we simply said that we were pulling online gambling out of “the scope of the U.S. commitments under the GATS" which many say is a completely underhanded way of handling the problem. Several members of Congress are vehemently opposed to the choices that our leaders have made, and have been very vocal in their resentment and disbelief that we would threaten the WTO after making our rivals follow the same rules.

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