Antigua Being Taken Much More Seriously Now

October 23, 2007

When Mark Mendel first brought the case of Antigua’s rights to online gambling to the courts, he says that he was literally laughed at. With Antigua being such a small country, and thus a seemingly small player in the online gambling industry, it was completely overlooked as a serious threat. However, taking the case to the World Trade Organization and showing how the UIGEA has truly hurt their economy, the country is in a much stronger position than many ever thought they might be.

The WTO has ruled in favor of the small island against the powerhouse United States, showing that they might be small but they can still fight. The US has simply decided that they won’t acknowledge their claims and are choosing to basically ignore the WTO’s rulings against them. The WTO has told them that they have to open the gates to online gambling, but they are refusing.

Thus, Hollywood is now looking at suffering some serious consequences because the US government refuses to see the forest for the trees. With intellectual property now in the fray, many US companies are now putting pressure on the US government to change their stance, as they will be the ones paying for it.

With the US now deciding to ignore the WTO, they have set a precedent for other nations who can now follow suit. For years we have pressed upon China to abide by the laws of the WTO, but we can no longer do so when we ourselves will not abide by them. As early as next year, Antigua will assuredly be able to sell pirates copies of everything from Disney movies to Microsoft software, and there won’t be anything that we can do about it.

With all of the other countries now lining up looking to press against the US to legalize online gambling, it will be easy to see where this is headed. Some say that this time next year online gambling will be legal again; that it will have to be. Others say that you can pretty much count on it come January 21, 2009.
 

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