U.S. Reaches Deal with EU, But Not Antigua

As part of an ongoing story, it was announced yesterday that the United States had reached a deal with Japan, Canada and the EU in order to keep its Internet gambling market closed off to foreign companies. Meanwhile, the US continues to talk with Macau, Costa Rica, India, and Antigua and Barbuda.

ANTIGUA TAKES ON GOLIATH

After Antigua filed suit against the US several years ago, many European Internet companies thought that there might be a chance of them getting back into the lucrative American market. This latest development was a major blow to those hopes.

The World Trade Organization ruled in April of 2005 that the US law which allowed only domestic companies to provide horse-racing betting was discriminating against foreign organizations. The US eventually responded in 2006 by passing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, making it illegal for credit card companies and banks to make payments to online gambling sites.

The US then went one step further and decided to retroactively exclude gambling and betting services from the 1994 trade agreement which they had signed. Their reasons? They claimed that they should have never agreed to such things in the first place.

Afterwards, Antigua looked to block the slippery US political machine by demanding financial compensation for lost revenue which had resulted from America’s blockade. The amount asked for could possibly rise as high as $7 billion dollars (in the form of patents and other elements of the US service market.) The European Union, India, Costa Rica, and Macau had also all seemed interested in getting some money from the US as compensation. European gambling companies were even arguing that the European Union should receive as much as $100 billion.

And while there’s no way they would have ever got that kind of money from the US, they did get something for their efforts. The numbers haven’t been released, but it has been reported in the past that the US was offering Antigua $500,000 in compensation.

Speaking of Antigua, they remain in negotiations with the United States. Essentially, Antigua wants to make a point and is refusing to back down to the US. America, on the other hand, is using every slimy legal tactic at its disposal to get out of a judgment which went against them both initially and during an appeals process.

Sadly, we want everyone else to follow the rules, but we can’t be bothered to do so ourselves, or at least not when tiny countries like Antigua are calling us on it. Another triumph for the Bush administration.

Luckily, Calvin Ayre continues to defy the government and offer the always-excellent Bodog to the masses.

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U.S. Reaches Deal with EU, But Not Antigua