The World Trade Organization is tentatively scheduled to hold a hearing next week regarding the ongoing online casino gambling dispute between the United States and Antigua and Barbuda. Meeting in Geneva, Switzerland to scrutinize the actions of the U.S. in response to a prior WTO ruling declaring that the U.S. was in violation of free trade guidelines by banning online casinos from taking U.S. bets, the panels main intent is to determine what compliance, if any, the U.S. has taken to honor the WTO ruling.

The Minister of Finance and Economy of Antigua and Barbuda, Dr. Errol Cort, has been proactively pursuing to resolve the matter, which after encountering a non-budging stance from the U.S., has taken the necessary steps of requesting a WTO panel to examine what actions the U.S. has taken in meeting their required end of the bargain.

On Monday, the panel will meet to establish the parameters of its investigation and organize an approach to dealing with U.S. officials and offer a possible compromise that will be acceptable to both parties. For Antigua and Barbuda, this amounts to preserving the business generated by the many regulated online casinos, whose servers are located on the island. With a continued banning of internet betting, many jobs will be jeopardized, not to mention the sanctity of the online casino industry itself.

The WTO panel will be given ninety days to give its final decision on the matter, at which time, the consequences of any further non-compliance by the U.S. will warrant further action yet to be determined.  What is known, however, is that a Congressional proposal for an in-depth study of the online casino industry is likely to take place, as well as a Senate ruling on the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act (both of which will likely not take place until next year). In the meantime, it seems the U.S. will remain in a grey area of carved-out online gambling litigation.