Let's walk through this one more time.
- US effectively bans offshore online gambling, but continues to allow onshore traditional gambling and online versions of the lottery and horse racing.
- The tiny island nation of Antigua sues the US over discrimination in the World Trade Organization court.
- The WTO rules in favor of Antigua and tells the US to allow offshore online gambling.
So, with the US stuck in a corner where they basically either have to allow online gambling or ban all forms of gambling within the US, what do they do? Well, you change the WTO gambling laws, of course.
After losing the case, the United States announced that it would take an unprecedented legal step to change the international commitments it made as part of the 1994 General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) treaty regulating the trade in services among the 150 members of the WTO.
Uhh...what? Does that mean that the US has the ability to change international law whenever they feel like it? What is the precedent being set here? I mean, just forget about the gambling aspect of this issue. Why would anyone in their right mind agree to something when the other person has shown that they will change the rules of the agreement when things don't go their way? Sebastian Sinclair, an Internet gambling industry analyst, makes a great point the in a NYT article, W.T.O. Explains Ruling Against U.S. Internet Gambling Ban:
[Sebastian Sinclair] said the larger issue was whether another, larger nation might use the ruling to challenge the United States' policy. And he said that the decision underscored a larger problem: that the United States is markedly out of step with many other nations, which not only allow Internet gambling but license and authorize Internet casinos within their shores.
The only reason why this isn't bigger news right now is that we are talking about gambling and mainstream media tends to shy away from "morally gray" subjects. It is kind of hard to explain in a 2 minute story why people should care about this regardless of what they think of gambling. It may take a little time, but I have a feeling this is not the last we have heard of this story.