Here's some hope!! Go Antigua!!

bigboydan · 10-05-06, 10:21 PM

I don't really see how they can really challenge this though. Don't think they would have a leg to stand on really IMO

heres the whole C&P article:

Online gaming firms consider legal challenge to US ban

· British-based companies could mount WTO case
· Antiguan government says it will work with websites

Hans Kundnani
Friday October 6, 2006
The Guardian

British-based online gambling companies could join forces with the Antiguan government to challenge the new US legislation targeting internet gambling that wiped an estimated £4bn from the sector's stockmarket value on Monday.

Antigua, which has already successfully challenged previous US laws on internet gambling, said yesterday it would be willing to work with UK companies such as Sportingbet to challenge what they see as US protectionism.

Following a complaint from Antigua, the World Trade Organisation ruled last year that US laws on online gambling contravened its rules. A WTO panel will decide in November whether the US is now complying with its rules.

Antiguan officials said yesterday that the new legislation, included in the port security bill passed by the Senate last Friday and due to be signed into law by President Bush within two weeks, was "as contrary to the decision of the WTO in our case as can possibly be imagined" and "puts the United States on a direct collision course with the WTO".

"The new legislation just makes our case before the WTO that much stronger," said Mark Mendel, a lawyer who represents Antigua in the WTO.

Complaints to the WTO from European companies are brought by the European commission, which said yesterday it had not yet received any approach from any UK company on the issue. However, several UK companies, including Sportingbet, have indicated they are actively considering a WTO case against the US.

Sportingbet chief executive Nigel Payne has been in Antigua since Tuesday afternoon and is understood to be meeting the Antiguan authorities to discuss the US legislation. Sportingbet has a licence in Antigua, which allows it to operate servers and customer support in Costa Rica for its US customers.

Meanwhile John J Farmer, a former New Jersey attorney general, told a conference in London that the legislation, which makes it illegal for banks and credit card companies to receive payments from online gambling sites, would drive the online gaming industry underground and benefit "fly-by-night operators".

There were also the first signs of much-anticipated consolidation in the online gaming industry yesterday as ukbetting said it had received a number of informal approaches to take over the company.

PartyGaming is known to be interested in acquisitions despite its shares falling 60% this week and said it cancelled its dividend to "take advantage of the many attractive opportunities in the sector that will emerge in the coming months".

PartyGaming, which has been forced to renegotiate its loan facility as a result of the US legislation, is also hoping to take over smaller rival Gamesys, which has all its customers in the UK.

However, even in the UK online gambling may now be under threat as a result of the US crackdown. US credit card companies MBNA and Capital One are considering the possibility of blocking the use of their cards for online gambling even from UK customers. Some major credit cards such as American Express already ban such uses.

McBa1n · 10-05-06, 10:54 PM

Yeah - so the US will violate the WTO or thumb its nose at it...
When was the last time the US didn't? I think our steel tariffs were the last thing the US actually lifted because of the WTO.
Outside of that? I can't think of anything.

The US Gov't. only cares about one issue internationally... "How can we enslave a nation?"

Dark Horse · 10-05-06, 11:09 PM

I wouldn't be so sure where it comes to global organizations as the WTO, World Bank, and IMF. Their power behind the scenes may reach much further and deeper than that of the US government.

tacomax · 10-06-06, 12:58 AM

Originally posted by Dark Horse

Their power behind the scenes may reach much further and deeper than that of the US government.

You really think so? Remember, this is America. This is the country which flouts Human Rights laws with the treatment of "prisoners" at Guantanamo Bay. This is the country which refuses to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. This is the country which is currenly embarking on an illegal occupation of Iraq. I could go on.

Land of the free, right?

Dark Horse · 10-06-06, 01:43 AM

The US is also the country where both sides of the aisle are firmly in the pockets of corporate interests. In today's world international corporations call the shots. ('Fascism', according to Mussolini, 'is better called corporatism, because it is the merging of state and corporate power').

I'm pretty sure that gambling isn't high on the agenda of the WTO, but where it comes to the balance of power between the US and the WTO I wouldn't bet on the US.

Dark Horse · 10-06-06, 01:58 AM

I'll give an example. The IMF (International Monetay Fund) will loan money -lots of it!- to a thirld world country, so that country can move up in the world. A bigtime project for that country. Complete overhaul.

IMF is fully aware that there is no infrastructure in this country, so inevitably the project fails and the country ends up in a huge debt. At this point a deal is made for the natural resources of that country, which is now more or less owned by the IMF.

The World Bank, now headed by that neocon fellow that was in the US administation (Wolfowitz) has expressed great interest in ... Africa.

pags11 · 10-06-06, 05:29 AM

I want my frickin' first ammendment rights...

jjgold · 10-06-06, 05:55 AM

Us laughs at WTO, bill is here to stay and even get tougher

Hulu · 10-06-06, 12:47 PM

Originally posted by Dark Horse

I'll give an example. The IMF (International Monetay Fund) will loan money -lots of it!- to a thirld world country, so that country can move up in the world. A bigtime project for that country. Complete overhaul.

IMF is fully aware that there is no infrastructure in this country, so inevitably the project fails and the country ends up in a huge debt. At this point a deal is made for the natural resources of that country, which is now more or less owned by the IMF.

The World Bank, now headed by that neocon fellow that was in the US administation (Wolfowitz) has expressed great interest in ... Africa.

This is dead on accurate. The entire purpose of the World Bank and IMF is to secure access to the resources of the third world for the enrichment of the first. They loan huge amounts of money to "developing" nations (translation: nations that the US and the rest of the first world ensure will never develop) under the condition that institute massive capitalist reforms. Once these reforms inevitably fail, the US has a stranglehold on the nation's resources for its own benefit.

The US will ignore any WTO ruling that is not in its favour as they have done for several years in the softwood lumber dispute with Canada and many other disputes with smaller nations. There is no real democracy or civility in the world. Its as it always has been...the strongest prevail and prey on the weak.

pags11 · 10-07-06, 12:26 AM

that sucks that the U.S. can just ignore what the WTO says...

tacomax · 10-07-06, 12:42 AM

Originally posted by Hulu

The US will ignore any WTO ruling that is not in its favour as they have done for several years in the softwood lumber dispute with Canada and many other disputes with smaller nations. There is no real democracy or civility in the world. Its as it always has been...the strongest prevail and prey on the weak.

Nail on head.

Any development of the third world countries will be at the detriment of the US economy. The US government would not like this, but I bet that a lot of US citizens wouldn't mind in the slightest. I certainly wouldn't.