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Editorial comment that will resonate with many online gamblers.
Hartley Henderson, the respected and outspoken Canadian owner of the information site Major Wager.com has a way with words that puts issues affecting the industry in perspective for many, and this week he sounded off against the absurdities of the American situation regarding the industry.
Editorialising, Henderson said other nations need to support the Antiguans in their World Trade Organisation attack on the hypocrisy of the United States government in singling out only certain aspects on Internet gambling for outlawing and prosecution :
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"Thus we are at a point where other nations either have to stand up to the United States or declare George Bush president of the world and let the United States determine morals and economic policy for every other nation on earth.
"True, Antigua has a small population and internet gambling may not be of paramount importance to all these other countries, but this is the first time a smaller country has been willing to take the type of stand they have against the United States for what they believe are their rights under the WTO. And the WTO and appellate body have made it clear that the U.S. is in the wrong.
"This is David vs. Goliath and as was the case in the bible, David is on the side of right here. The United States is arguing that remote gambling is immoral, but they offer remote gambling everywhere in their own country. Since when is protectionism about morality?
"If the European Community, Canada and all nations in the WTO for that matter, truly believe in the principles and purpose of the World Trade Organization then they should come to the defense of Antigua. Doing so will send the message that the WTO is not a one way street in favor of the world superpowers, it will also send a more important message that when you deal in a global economy disputes have to be settled by international courts. And if the decisions don't go a country's way, sometimes they just have to admit that maybe they were wrong.
Henderson concludes by observing: "For the sake of economic fairness, for the sake of their own citizens who were wrongly prosecuted and persecuted by the United States and for the sake of avoiding a precedent setting case declaring the United States as having the sole power to dictate ethics and morality to the rest of the world, the European Union should get off the fence and take the side of Antigua in the WTO case involving internet gambling."
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