The US Justice Department might be quite the heavyweight, but the World Trade Organization will always be weightier. Now, it seems as if the WTO might just be the poker sites’ hope of ever getting back on their own feet. A report by Reuters revealed that some officials from Antigua, the country where Absolute Poker gets its license from, could be taking the issue to the WTO, claiming that the US is practicing “Discriminatory Trade Practices”.
Go Antigua!!
Antigua is going to champion the cause of poker players all over the world – or at least, the online poker companies. They have accused the US Department of Justice as doing ‘illegal protectionist acts’, particularly to protect those brick and mortar casinos that are probably very threatened by the possibility of these online poker sites entering the US market once online poker becomes legal. However, the US DOJ has sued these sites because of money laundering so that weakens the argument a bit. The officials from Antigua have not given up yet though and have said that the US has illegally prevented these poker sites from utilizing credit cards and other normal banking services. Mark Mendel said, “I don’t think there’s another country in the world that puts people in jail for engaging in trade that’s lawful under international law,” then he adds, “It’s as if Antigua would put Americans in jail for selling pineapples”. Indeed, Mendel couldn’t have said it better. The US DOJ’s arrogance has been pretty much emphasized by these statements and it’s very, very nice to see that someone means to oppose their horribly unfair actions.
The Opposition
It’s still unknown whether or not the World Trade Organization will stand by Antigua on this one. Then again, this isn’t exactly a new conflict between the two countries. Antigua has already expressed its complaints about the US’ restrictions back in 2003 to the WTO. The WTO, two years later, agreed, saying that the US did violate international agreements on trade. They also pretty much said that the US excuses about restricting online gambling to “protect public morality” as complete hogwash. Antigua got $21 million from the US as compensation for this and it looks as if we’re going to be seeing a rehash of this whole scene this time around, especially with the US being extra aggressive towards the online poker companies.
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