Minister Recorded As Saying That Antigua Has Been Attempting To Work With The United States Representatives For Trade In A Friendly Manner

Dr. Errol Cort, who is the Antiguan minister of finance, recently returned to Antigua after traveling abroad to persuade officials to go along with the findings of the WTO with regard to their anti-U.S. ruling on Internet gambling.  Dr. Cort says that is both dismayed and amazed that Congress would approve the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

Cort told reporters that he found it remarkable that just as they were visiting, and while they were stressing the desire of Antigua to work together with United States Government in a friendly manner, in order to guarantee a safe delivering of their services to American consumers, that the United States Congress would take this time to place additional protections on their far off domestic industry at the expense of such countries as Barbuda and Antigua.

Minister Cort pointed out that the new legislation creates special opportunities for domestic interests to participate in many forms of Internet gaming through exemptions within the legislation, while effectively banning all interstate an international online gaming transactions of a financial nature by stating that it would be illegal for credit card companies and banks to make payments to Internet operations of this type.

Dr. Cort traveled to United States in an attempt to overcome the impasse, which the America Government has set up by refusing to carry out a WTO ruling.  In this capacity, he met and had meetings with representatives of the United States Government and the Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of State, with U.S. trade representatives, and with members of Congress.

It is believed that 25 percent of the approximately $6 billion that is bet by Americans gambling online each year, is wagered at Antigua-based operations.

In addition to this new legislation, there have been other events recently that have alarmed Antigua, such as the recent indictment against BetSports which effectively shut down that company, which runs its Internet business from Antigua and Costa Rica, and the attempt to extradite Peter Dicks, the chairman of Sportingbet, which was carried out by Louisiana authorities accusing him of gambling by computer, and in this way violating the Louisiana state morality law.

Commentators living outside of United States almost to the man, view this new legislation as being openly protectionist as well as being hypocritical, and say that it is actually political in nature, in response to upcoming Congressional midterm elections.

The head of Antigua's WTO legal team, Mark Mandel, describes the new U.S. legislation as being clearly protectionist, having been tacked on to a security bill at the very last moment, and says that it is in as much conflict as possible with the decision of the WTO as regards the Antigua case, as much as anyone can imagine.  He says that the new bill expands opportunities for domestic remote gambling, while at the same time blocking the right of others to provide such services, in conflict with the commitment that the United States made under the World Trade Organization agreements.  Mendel says it's almost impossible to believe that they have done this.

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