Nobody in the online gambling industry was particularly surprised when Antigua and the United States announced that they had not managed to reach an agreement regarding their ongoing conflict by last Friday’s deadline.
The parties have now shifted the deadline to July 11th, in the hopes that once and for all they will be able to decide on a fair settlement, as ordered by the World Trade Organization, after Antigua charged the US for breaking its trade pact by banning foreign gambling operators from competing in the US market.
Antigua’s Finance Minister, Errol Cort said: “The extension, just like the last one, is not an extremely long one because we want to keep parties actively engaged at the table, utilizing all efforts to resolve the issues and arrive at an amicable settlement. If we can arrive at some amicable settlement, then it would bring to an end all of the proceedings and settle the entire matter… It’s a tall order. I don’t want to give the impression that it’s a simple and straightforward matter.”