http://www.egamingpulse.com/archives/1906-WTO-hearings-positive-for-Online-Gaming.html
Friday, December 8. 2006
WTO hearings positive for Online Gaming
Barbuda and Antigua’s internet gaming case against the United States was tabled over two days in Geneva.
Dr. Errol Cort is the Finance Minister of Antigua. He was quoted as saying that "Major trading partners of the United States have seen it fit to join with us in contesting what we have always maintained is a dispute about granting market access,"
Antigua has the backing of Japan, Europe, and China on the issues. These countries are major trading partners of the United States yet have chosen to stand against the US on the matter. The online gaming industry is valued at some US$15.5 billion. The US government introduced the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act earlier this year effectively banning non US government sanctioned online gaming. The impact was felt by many British publicly traded online betting companies and some European companies with large US customer bases. Several European states have standing online gaming legislation, so it was no surprise to industry analysts that the EU would back Antigua in this matter.
Cort went on to say that "What is even more remarkable is that (they)
chose to become active players in this WTO process, and we believe that
a crucial factor in their respective decisions to do so was the pure
merits of our case."
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