James Packer's Crown Limited has formed new alliances with powerful US gambling barons, spending AUD 414 million to buy stakes in the giant privately owned Harrah's Entertainment and Stations Casino Group. But an earlier plan to buy a prime piece of Las Vegas land and build the world's tallest casino tower is under a cloud, with Crown's partners reviewing their involvement in the project.

The United States has reached a deal with the European Union, Japan and Canada to keep its Internet gambling market closed to foreign companies, but is continuing talks with India, Antigua and Barbuda, Macau and Costa Rica, US trade officials said. "We are pleased to confirm that the United States has reached agreement ... with Canada, the EU and Japan," Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the US Trade Representative’s office, said in a statement several hours after the EU had announced details of the deal it had reached with Washington.

More than a decade ago, over dinner at an exclusive Los Angeles restaurant, James Packer watched his late father and Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn haggle over how much Kerry Packer could wager on a single hand on his next visit to Sin City. Wynn won the argument, limiting Packer to USD 250,000 a hand because he knew the notorious hit-and-run whale could get on a streak, as he famously did at the MGM Grand one weekend in 1997, reportedly taking the casino for at least USD 20million playing baccarat.

Antigua and Barbuda’s prime minister says he is hopeful that weekend meetings with members of the U.S. Congress would help resolve an ongoing trade battle with the United States over Internet gambling. Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer discussed the dispute with New York Democrat Representative Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and three other members of the Congressional Black Caucus Sunday on the sidelines of a regional business conference.

The victorious trade attorney for Antigua and Barbuda in its World Trade Organisation (WTO) case against the United States has announced that he expects a decision on the tiny nation’s compensation claim by the end of the month. Mark Mendel led the legal team that successfully pled the tiny Caribbean nation’s case against the US over its protectionist Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) legislation passed in late last year.

An agreement between Antigua and Barbuda and the United States (US) on compensation for America’s withdrawal from World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade obligations has faced a second delay. According to Mark Mendel, the attorney representing Antigua and Barbuda at the WTO, there has been an agreement to extend the time-frame for resolution of negotiations between the two countries until 14 Dec. The negotiations were originally scheduled to be completed in September, but were first extended to October and now into December.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has announced that the process of working out fair compensation for nations impacted by the withdrawal of the United States from treaty obligations on gambling will continue this week at a hearing scheduled for today in Geneva. The meeting in Switzerland will feature a WTO panel hearing verbal submissions from both the US and Antigua and Barbuda Governments, both of which will get the chance to pose questions based on the arguments raised by both sides regarding compensation.

Geneva - The tiny Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda asked the World Trade Organization on Tuesday for the right to authorize [[USD]] 3.4 billion in commercial sanctions against the United States for its failure to comply with a WTO ruling against its Web gambling restrictions.

At last year's online gambling convention, there was a three-storey bar staffed by augmented blondes in miniskirts and orbited by casino execs toasting their future riches. In its place this year is a booth with pamphlets on gambling addiction. The annual Global Interactive Gaming Summit & Expo in Montreal is a whisper of its past incarnations, thanks to recent u.s. regulations banning gaming.

Geneva: The tiny Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda slammed the United States over its illegal restrictions on Internet gambling sites based overseas and asked other countries to join in seeking compensation from Washington for its failure to comply with global trade rules. Antigua, the smallest country to successfully litigate a case in the World Trade Organization's 12-year-history.

Die Inselstaaten Antigua and Barbuda hatten im März letzten Jahres den Fall vor die Welthandelsorganisation (WTO) gebracht. Es ging um die Frage, ob das Verbot von Online-Casinos in den USA gegen Internationales Handelsrecht verstößt. Im März 2004 hatte die WTO diese Frage mit einem "Ja" beantwortet.
Seit November 2004 lag der Panel-Bericht der WTO vor

Über die erhebliche Bedeutung, die das Gambelli-Urteil für die Liberalisierung des Glückspielmarktes in der Europäischen Union hat, haben wir bereits mehrfach berichtet. Eine bahnbrechende Entscheidung ist nunmehr auch in einem Streitverfahren der Welthandelsorganisation WTO ergangen. In diesem, von dem Karibikstaat Antigua gegen die USA geführten Verfahren wurde festgestellt, dass das restriktive Verhalten der USA gegenüber dem grenzüberschreitenden Angebot von Glückspielen und Wetten gegen WTO-Recht verstößt.