December 21, 2007 11:54AM # Update on the Internet Gambling Dispute By [Sallie James](https://www.cato.org/people/sallie-james) --- SHARE Good news and not-so-good news on the long-running saga over internet gambling (background [here](http://www.freetrade.org/node/535)): Antigua has been awarded $21 million annual “damages” as a result of the United States’ restrictions on offshore provision of internet gambling and betting services. That is far less than the $3.4 billion Antigua had asserted it is owed, but more than the United States had suggested was warranted ($500,000). On the other hand, the arbitrator gave Antigua permission to collect the damages by suspending their obligations to protect U.S. intellectual property. The $21 million worth of pirated software, movies, and music would go on annually unless and until the United States changes its laws, so we can expect some lobbying from Hollywood to have the restrictions on internet gambling lifted. The report just came out, so I have yet to absorb it fully myself, but [here](http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/285arb_e.pdf) it is. ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).