A US bill which could effectively crush Antigua & Barbuda’s online gaming industry was passed in the US House of Representative on Tuesday.

The House of Representatives voted 317-93 in favour of the legislation which would outlaw the use of credit cards in most online gambling transactions and would allow US law enforcement bodies to collaborate with Internet service providers to block access to gambling sites.

Internet gaming is a multi-billion dollar international industry and the US provides the largest single group of online gamblers, so the bill, if it is passed in the US Senate and signed into law by President George W. Bush, could bar the access of gaming companies registered in Antigua & Barbuda to a substantial portion of their customer base.

Director of Gaming Kaye McDonald said the progress made by the legislation has negative implications for the effectiveness of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which ordered the US to remove restrictions on offshore gaming more than a year ago.

Thus far, the US has essentially ignored the WTO ruling and the international trade regulators will shortly begin the next stage of review of US legislation.

Meanwhile, McDonald said local gaming companies were expressing concern over the progress of the bill and some have already begun implementing measures to expand and diversify their client base, in anticipation of losing the US market.

McDonald said the millions of potential online gamblers in the Asian and European markets were being considered and cultivated as alternate customers, as the likelihood increases that access to American clients could be cut off.

Nevertheless, the director of gaming said Antigua & Barbuda would not wave a white flag and does not see the passage of the bill as inevitable.

“We are committed to the Internet gaming industry. I think that our regulation and legislation have exhibited that. Our hope is that the bill being submitted for Senate consideration will remain…and will not be passed,” she said. McDonald said she was not disheartened by the bipartisan support and more than three to one passage of the bill in the House of Representatives.

“The general feeling from the industry is that the bill will not pass,” she told the SUN. “We have to look at the different implications coming out of these bills. For example, they are asking for a regulatory nightmare for the banking industry in the United States, because they are going to be asking the banks to scrutinise each and every transaction coming out of the US to ultimately assess whether it is for Internet gaming.”

She said it was on that basis that the US banking industry had lobbied against the legislation.

In addition, McDonald pointed out that the American Gaming Association (AGA) has demonstrated neutrality on the issue for the first time and had backed away from its opposition of Internet gaming.

Instead the AGA is now calling on Congress to put in place an internet gambling study commission, which would examine regulation of the industry in various jurisdictions.