"Against All Odds"

The World Trade Organization’s ruling with regard to the United States’ appeal involving regulation of the online gambling industry, involving the small island of Antigua and whether it has the right to make its online gambling services available to United States citizens, is of central importance. This small island that claims a population of only 68,000 people, a tiny Caribbean nation, apparently is standing up to the United States in what is actually an international battle over the ultimate fate of the Internet gambling industry.

It is the argument of the government of Antigua that while the United States is barring online gambling from its country, the United States itself is allowing gambling and sometimes Internet gambling on its own territories. Only businesses that deal in online gambling that are of the\based in Antigua are being blocked as being illegal. Antigua’s lawyers claim that this is a color violation of fair trade practices in that it discriminates against foreign companies. In addition, it is Antigua’s argument that the Washington based World Bank was the very one that encouraged Antigua to get more involved in Internet industry as a way of diversifying its narrow economy.

On their part the United States is arguing that Internet gambling is a moral hazard, more so than conventional forms of gambling. In addition they sight the World Trade Organization’s own 1995 General Agreement on Trade in Services major ruling that enforces a country’s right to prevent offshore gambling.

To counter this argument of the United States, Antigua is pointing out that the United States is in no position to take the moral high ground since it allows brick and mortar casinos and gambling within its own territories, in many locations including various locales. It is legal to gamble in that country in small rural towns, on various Indian reservations, in a number of large cities, and in addition to that, it is possible to legally purchase lottery tickets over the Internet in Las Vegas.

Also there are many military bases that operate their own casinos even when local laws otherwise prohibit gambling. There are those who argue that military bases are possibly the worst place to allow gambling since the military environment might be conducive to the development of gambling addictions.

Joy Cohen, the owner of an online gambling site that is based in Antigua, is one who is very much aware of what is going on between the U.S. and Antigua. It was Cohen who was recently arrested and convicted for letting Americans bet online, in violation of the U.S. Wire Act. He ended up serving 17 months in jail for this white-collar crime. Therefore, Cohen eagerly awaits the WTO’s ruling on the U.S. appeal in anticipation of a moral victory.