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Will Antigua Retaliate?

The United States has really only just entered into serious negotiations with the World Trade Organization and the eight countries with valid claims seeking compensation as a result of the U.S.’s offshore online casino ban. These talks are a result of several years of WTO court cases from Antigua claiming that the U.S. policies regarding only inter-state horserace betting defied international trading treaties. The U.S. fought the case, yet the WTO ruled in favor of Antigua. And though the issue of betting has been an issue since 2003, the WTO’s ruling was specifically related to the U.S. policies regarding betting. Then, just a year ago the U.S. passed an off-shore online casino ban that heightened the global case against the U.S. and has created one of the largest cases the WTO has ever handled.

Once the U.S. passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), however, the issue escalated as the UIGEA devastated the Antiguan economy. Initially, the U.S. refused to acknowledge that the UIGEA violated treaty agreements, and then in May, the U.S. chose to amend, or rather clarify, the 1994 treaty that granted other countries access to the U.S. online casino and gambling markets. And for months the U.S. asserted that the clarification meant that the U.S. was no longer at fault and no longer accountable to the global online casino gambling industry.

In the interim though – in the time that the U.S. has refused to work with Antigua, the Antiguan government has already begun to plan retaliatory measures. These threats from the Antiguan government center on the power of U.S. copyright laws rather than the online casino industry. Antigua’s “cross-retaliation” plans would amount to roughly $3.4 billion in damages to U.S. companies in Silicon Valley and Hollywood should the country ignore copyright protections on American software, music, movies, and more. Antigua is currently pressing the issue the WTO and awaiting the opportunity or need for such drastic actions.