The World Trade Organization said on Friday, March 30, that the U.S. was defying a WTO ruling made in 2005.
An arbitration panel said regarding a case brought by the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda that the U.S. law that was passed in October 2006 did not resolve the problem that its legislation, implemented by selective prosecutions by the Department of Justice, unfairly discriminated against foreign online gambling companies.
Antigua and Barbuda, a tiny Caribbean nation of 80,000 people, has challenged Bush's administration's efforts to ban online gambling for U.S. residents by making it illegal for credit card companies to process payments to gambling sites.
The U.S. says that the October law isn't covered by the WTO ruling and said that its 1995 commitment to open online gambling to foreign companies was an oversight by the Clinton administration.
Stock prices of online gambling companies, including PartyGaming and SportingBet, which said this week it plans to transfer its London offices to the Channel Islands because of U.K. regulation, jumped following the decision.
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