Could UIGEA Be Reversed? Part I of III

The United States had decided that they objected to internet gambling and slot machines and they were going to make it illegal. They decided that they did not want the “moral fiber” of their country compromised, so they made a blanket ruling that there was to be no more internet gambling. There is only one problem with this, they affected other countries as well as ours with the ban.

Countries like Antigua and Barbuda get a large portion of their income from the United States and the licensed gambling operators that work within their borders. They usually get about one billion dollars in revenue from the US, and with the ban they noticed that they were getting significantly less. So they took a good long look at the way the US handles online gambling and decided to take their beef to the World Trade Organization.

So they went to the WTO who agreed with them since the US was obviously in direct violation of the free trade obligations. The Antiguan government asked that they make the US reopen their borders. Their argument was that the US was discriminating against them because they allow gambling within their borders, but would not let other countries in to compete. Therefore they were violating the free trade agreement.

The US said that they don’t allow internet gambling within their borders either using a “morals” defense which countries are allowed to do. However, since they actually do allow some internet gambling they were still in violation. So the WTO gave the US one year to comply with their order to either completely ban online gambling or they had to open their borders.

Next time we discuss what happened after the year was up, and what the US government had to say to the WTO.

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