A World Trade Organization panel has held that the United States should dump what the WTO calls an unfair trade barrier that bans Americans from betting at online casinos. The panel mediated a dispute between Washington and the tiny Caribbean nation Antigua and Barbuda.
"We believe that throughout the proceedings, we presented convincing evidence and persuasive arguments," said Antigua's ambassador to the United Nations, John Ash, following the panel's decision.
Antigua is believed to see gambling on and offline as a way to reduce the tiny country's dependence on tourism, which has suffered heavily in recent years thanks to rounds of hurricanes in the late 1990s, according to several reports.
Richard Mills, the spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, called the WTO panel finding "deeply flawed" and said his government would appeal. Ash told reporters Antigua would fight that appeal as hard as it did to get the WTO panel to hold on its behalf.
Antigua last year filed a case to the WTO, saying American bans on Internet gambling broke trade agreements the U.S. made as a WTO member. Mills countered that negotiators involved in creating the WTO intended clearly enough to exclude gambling.
"Throughout our history, the United States has had restrictions on gambling, like many other countries," he said in a formal statement. "Given these restrictions, it defies common sense that the United States would make a commitment to let international gambling operate within our borders.
"WTO members were already restricting gambling and other activities affecting public morals and public order long before they created the WTO," Mills continued. "The WTO agreements confirmed the rights of members to protect public morals and public order."
