Antigua and Barbuda

The islands of Antigua and Barbuda offers two types of online gaming licenses under the “Financial Services Regulatory Commission – Division of Gaming” (FSRC Gaming Division): interactive gaming (casino games and poker) and interactive wagering (sports betting). Unlike other non-European gaming jurisdictions, Antigua and Barbuda have very high fees including a non-refundable deposit of $10,000 for due diligence plus an annual license fee for interactive gaming at $75,000 (and/or an annual license fee for interactive wagering at $50,000) and key-person licenses at $1,000 for the first year and $250 for renewal years.

Readers might remember this gambling jurisdiction from a 2003 dispute process involving the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the U.S.A. The islands claimed that the American internet gambling policies constituted a violation of an international pact called the General Agreement on Trade in Services or GATS and resulted in a WTO ruling against the U.S.A. for violating the GATS.

The U.S.A. was given a one-year time frame to bring its laws into conformity with the GATS, but the compliance deadline passed with the U.S.A. Failing to take corrective action. To make matters even worse, the U.S. passed a bill in 2006 prohibiting online gambling altogether. Several other agreements have failed, including annual trade sanctions on behalf of Antigua and Barbuda and up to their final meeting in 2009 (during the Bush administration) no agreement had been possible to reach.