The tiny island state of Antigua and Barbuda has been involved in a cross border online gambling dispute with the US for more than a year now. And although the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled in favor of Antigua, the U.S. hasn't made any effort to comply with the WTO ruling so far.
The WTO ruled last year that the US violates the principles of free trade by discriminating unfairly against online gambling firms licensed in the Caribbean island state of Antigua and Barbuda.
The US defended it's position with the argument it was allowed to prohibit online gambling on "moral grounds". But the WTO countered that this argument was invalid as the US allowed US-based horse-betting companies to take bets through the Internet.
The US obviously doesn't want to comply with the WTO ruling, and in fact the House Judiciary Committee has just passed the Goodlatte bill that aims to update the outdated Wire Act from 1961 to explicitly and unambiguously prohibit Internet gambling at the federal level.
To be fair there's also a bill that proposes to conduct a congressional study into online gambling first, in order to make a more informed decision. The last bill, introduced by representatives Jon Porter and Shelley Berkley, is backed by the American Gaming Association (AGA).
The AGA represents some of America's biggest land-based casinos, including MGM Mirage, Harrah's and Wynn Resorts. Frank Fahrenkopf, the president of the AGA commented: "The American people clearly want to gamble on the Internet, [...] The question is, what's the best way to protect them? Is it better to have them offshore or would it be better to license, regulate and tax them here? That's what (a study commission) should look at."
If the Goodlatte bill would pass through a full House in the coming month, this would also strongly reaffirm America's current non-compliance with the aforementioned WTO ruling. However this doesn't seem much of a concern to the US legislators, and we wouldn't be surprised if most congressmen aren't even aware of this fact.
Antigua is a small country and doesn't have the necessary diplomatic muscle to get the WTO ruling more prominently on the agenda of Congress. What is needed is the strong support by larger countries that are also a member of the WTO.
L.M. Murray, the editor of the Canadian based website PokerPulse.com, launched a courageous and very praiseworthy initiative this week to garner diplomatic support from the Canadian government to help Antigua in it's free trade struggle against the US.
PokerPulse.com is recognized within the poker industry as the leader in tracking the growth of the poker market in terms of number of players and other metrics.
According to the Antigua Sun, Murray has sent an appeal to Canada's new Prime Minister Stephen Harpher in which he calls for "a strong, renewed commitment by our envoys to show Canada’s support for Antigua, the bravest and boldest WTO member, in its cross-border betting dispute with the US."
Murray also stated in his letter that "After much research and a lot of hard work, they [Antigua] were able to use their knowledge of technology and the Internet to develop a legitimate, well-regulated industry, an industry that became so successful, in fact, that the US is trying to shut it down. [...] Even today, despite two favorable panel decisions and a stated promise to comply, the US is considering two more pieces of legislation that would preclude Antigua’s participation in the US market."
A full transcript of the letter can be found here.