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Antigua's bid to get big sanctions against the U.S. for its online gambling ban has for all intents and purposes failed

Last year saw the U.S. ban online gambling in its many sordid and popular forms.  Casinos and private firms felt the pinch as the feds started 2007 off with a campaign of arrests that threatened to completely destroy the online gambling industry as it exists in the U.S.  Most recently, the US government scored a jackpot settlement of millions of dollars from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, who admitted to aiding and abetting online gambling in the past.

Now the U.S.'s gambling-critical government has another victory, as it escaped any serious international sanctions from the World Trade Organization (WTO).  The WTO, which polices trade worldwide, investigated Antigua's accusations that the U.S. was holding domestic online gambling providers to a different and unfair standard from foreign gambling providers since casinos are legally owned and operated in parts of North America. 

The small island nation of Antigua invested heavily in online gambling and was rocked by the U.S.-lead WTO decision last year to curb and eventually ban it.  Antigua sought $3.4B USD in WTO sanctions against the U.S.

In the end, the U.S. got off with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.  The WTO announced a ruling of a paltry $21 million USD in sanctions against the United States.  The U.S.'s Trade Representative stated publicly that Antigua deserved more than $500,000, but also stated, "We're pleased that the figure arrived at is over 100 times lower" than Antigua had sought.

Banning online gambling outright is illegal under the current WTO-enforced international treaty.  In the coming months  the WTO will hear committees to rework the WTO main agreement to allow such bans. 

Sources close to the case speculate Antigua may try to fight back by allowing copyright-lax server farms; a move similar to the recent Chinese ban on U.S. movie imports.

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RE: Why?
By Targon on 12/28/2007 7:47:57 AM , Rating: 1
The public education system is a good reason for kids being "dumb and lazy" as well, so trying to pin this on smoking certain things isn't really fair. A big problem today is the culture which says that kids should get everything they want without doing anything to earn it.

On the topic on the economy, the problem most people have with the US debt is that the government is spending money on things that have zero benefits for the people in the USA. The government running at a deficit because of a slow economy is one thing, but the government running at a deficit because of poor spending policies is another. With that in mind, because the government in effect is broke(running at a deficit continually), the government as an entity should NOT be out there trying to save the world. Let the European nations be the ones to respond when there is a natural disaster in a third world country since their currency is worth more at this point, and the USA can throw in some tiny amount of money. The government can ASK the people of the USA to help those other countries, but the government itself isn't in a financial position to offer aid.

Gambling would be a source of revenues, but due to a lot of negatives(people gambling more than they can afford to lose), it really isn't a good idea to allow for online gambling without any way to make sure people are not spending more than they can afford to lose. In most casinos, those losing a lot of money are stopped after a while by the casino bosses.


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