The government of Antigua and Barbuda issued a statement to congratulate Calvin Ayre shortly after the gambling businessman saw all felony charges brought against him by the US dropped.
Mr. Ayre was indicted by the District of Maryland US Attorney back in 2012 for violating US laws and providing local players with online gambling services via the Bodog iGaming brand he had found himself.
Last month, Chief Judge Catherine Blake from the Maryland District Court dropped the charges against the Canada-born entrepreneur and his iGaming business. Mr. Ayre was required to pay a $500,000 fine and another $100,000 for the right to reacquire the Bodog brand.
The businessman has been based in Antigua and Barbuda since 2007 and is known to be a major investor there, hence today’s statement from the government of the Caribbean island nation and its friendly attitude towards him.
Antigua and Barbuda has had its own fare share of legal quarreling with the US. The conflict stemmed from the States’ crackdown on online gambling that began in the early and mid-2000s and actually continues to this day.
The small island nation was actually the world’s first jurisdiction to introduce an online gambling regulatory framework back in 1994. Its laws allowed interested gambling operators to apply for licenses to run gaming websites. Antigua and Barbuda quickly became a popular destination among gaming companies and that had a very positive effect on its economy.
As mentioned above, it was in the 2000s when the US began implementing a gradual ban on the provision of online gambling services within its borders, which culminated with the implementation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006.
The US being so unfriendly disposed towards remote gambling affected Antigua and Barbuda’s previously thriving iGaming industry to a terrible extent. The nation sought help from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and much-needed help was delivered.
The WTO found that by obstructing Antigua and Barbuda licensees from providing iGaming services on its territory, the US was violating a 1995 treaty that aimed to scrap international trade barriers. The organization also ruled that the US pay the island nation $21 million in annual damages, a ruling the former has been refusing to accept. As a result, the State’s debt to Antigua and Barbuda currently exceeds $250 million.
The government of the Caribbean nation has repeatedly tried to settle the issue over the past 15 years, but the US has refused to revisit its stance on the matter. Antigua and Barbuda officials have recently revealed that they will once again bring the dispute to the WTO’s attention, if no agreement is reached prior to that. And it does not seem that an agreement will be reached.
