U.S. Ignores Online Gambling Deadline With Antigua
The United States continues to treat the island country of Antigua as a redheaded stepchild rather than an equal in the world of nations. This week, the deadline passed for the U.S. to propose a method of settlement in its infractions concerning Antigua and online gambling without any word from the U.S. government.
Antigua officials have adopted a patient approach. The dispute has been ongoing for over five years. Dr. Errol Cort, Antigua's Minister of Finance and the Economy, has been the lead representative in the matter, but is currently in Barbados arranging trade agreements on flour.
After asking the World Trade Organization for billions in damages, Antigua was disappointed to be awarded only $21 million in sanctions by a WTO arbitrator. Still, the U.S. has failed to settle even the smaller amount, and Antigua has threatened to ignore U.S. intellectual property rights and copyrights as a means of collecting the country's just due.
Mark Mendel, Antigua's attorney in the case, made clear that any settlement of the dispute must not only satisfy the claim for compensation, but address the WTO's ruling on the obligation to provide access to internet gambling operators, and the U.S. failure to comply.
A Congressional Subcommittee begins hearings tomorrow on the UIGEA, the law that basically shut down the U.S. market to foreign operators. Proper Congressional action may remove this ungainly, expensive, and unjust law, and leave only the issue of settling with Antigua for past damages.
