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Antigua mulls appealing WTO decision

By FreedomAtStake | View all Posts
Posted Wednesday, April 23, 2008 11:08 AM

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The Anigua Sun reported the other day that the country is considering appealing the WTO decision regarding the online gambling dispute between Antigua and America.

You might ask, "I thought Antigua won that case. Why would they appeal?"

Good question.

Yes, Antigua won the case, but the issue is the size of the award granted Antigua.

Antigua might have been reaching a bit by asking for compensation in the range of $3 billion per year, but it was viewed as a number that took into account the potential range of services (sportsbetting, casino, poker, horseracing, etc.) and the potential revenue that America was denying Antigua by blocking access to the American market.

However, the WTO took a very limited view and only awarded compensation of $21M per year, which only reflected the horseracing market.

This view flies in the face of the basis of the actual decision, which Antigua won because horseracing is a form of gambling, and to allow online horseracing gambling in America and still disallow foreign competition is, well, against pretty much every business treaty America has ever pushed for. To limit the award to strictly horseracing market losses is conceivable, but not really in the spirit of the actual case and decision.

At least, that is the opinion of Antigua, as well as lots of other people (including yours truly) and countries.

Appealing this type of decision is not something to consider lightly. It takes a lot of time and effort and, frankly, it seems like a battle that Antigua should not be fighting alone.

I worry that Antigua is going to end up in a situation where it fights the good fight for the ultimate benefit of everybody, and then when they succeed in eventually opening the market, the end result will be a flight of business operations away from Antigua as other countries piggyback on their success without contributing to the cause.

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User:	Freedom@Stake
Joined:	July 1995
Location:	Ireland
Team:	Florida State Seminoles
Occupation:	Media

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