Antigua prime minister hopes talks with US lawmakers will ease Internet gambling dispute

: Antigua and Barbuda's premier curate said he was hopeful that weekend meetings with members of the U.S. United States Congress would assist resoluteness an in progress trade conflict with the United States over Internet gambling.

Prime Curate James Baldwin Herbert Spencer discussed the difference with New House Of York Democrat Rep. Prince Charles Rangel, president of the House Way and Means Committee, and three other members of the Congressional Black Caucus on the outs of-bounds of a regional concern conference.

Antigua impeaches the U.S. of disabling its gaming industry by effectively banning Americans from placing online stakes with gambling operators in the Caribbean Sea nation.

"We're hoping that coming out of this duologue here, Charlie Rangel would have got a better and greater grasp of Antigua and Barbuda's position," Herbert Spencer said.

The U.S. United States Congress last twelvemonth barred American Banks and recognition card companies from processing payments made to online and offshore gambling operators, denying the international gaming industry entree to a moneymaking U.S. market. Today on IHT.com

Antigua, which have got promoted online gaming to ease its dependence on tourism, filed a ailment with the World Trade Organization and is seeking to enforce US$3.4 billion (€2.3 billion) in trade countenances against the U.S.

Rangel, who supervises taxation statute law as chair of the Way and Means Committee, said he worries American Capital may have overstepped its authorization in the long-running dispute.

"I believe my state is incorrect in trying to change the regulations of the WTO," Rangel told local reporters. "Your great state and ours volition have got to negociate those differences in footing of equity and fairness."

The World Trade Organization last December upheld Washington's right to forestall offshore gambling, but said the U.S. could not aim offshore and online gambling casinos without applying the same regulations to American operators of off-track Equus caballus and domestic dog race betting.

After that ruling, American Capital vowed to take and exempt Internet gaming from its World Trade Organization pact obligations. Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, India, Japan, Macao and the 27-nation European Union have got joined Antigua in filing compensation claims as a result.