Antigua and Barbuda big win against U.S. | IXGAMES
Antigua and Barbuda expects to receive a big damage award from the World Trade Organization in a long-running Internet gambling dispute with the United States, a lawyer for the Caribbean nation said on Monday. In an April 2005 the WTO found a U.S. law allowing only domestic companies to provide online horse-race gambling services discriminated against foreign companies. The United States has argued Antigua is entitled to only $500,000 in compensation because of that ban. 🙂 
But Antigua – which built an online gambling industry to replace declining tourist revenues – has asked permission to impose $3.44 billion a year worth of *cross-retaliation* on the United States. It specifically wants permission to suspend copyright protections on American movies, music and software so its domestic manufacturers can export those products to the United States and potentially other markets. European online gambling companies are angry about being shut out of the lucrative U.S. online gambling market, and have urged the EU to seek as much as $100 billion in compensation. The latest deadline for finishing those talks is Friday – the same day the WTO will rule on Antigua’s damages request. (The British Government has signaled quite clearly its support for regulation rather than prohibition of gambling).