This actually doesn't seem that bad...
Antigua is entitled to take $21 million a year from Hollywood until such time as the US makes the laws compliant with the WTO decree, which would basically be by getting rid of the special treatment that horseracing receives.
Given how much lobbying power Hollywood has, I think it's a safe bet that Congress will make the law compliant fairly quickly.
The two likely ways to do this are:
* to treat horse betting with Antigua and other nations the same as other interstate phone/online horse betting services (OTB telephone accounts, TVG, etc.)
* to outright ban interstate horse wagering (i.e. revert to the situation that persisted 15-plus years ago) again. Given how much of the handle for the tracks and in the parimutuel pools comes from that type of action, banning that will severely damage the horseracing industry.
Hollywood will demand that one of those two options be chosen.
The horseracing industry will demand that the first be chosen.
So the offshore racebooks will be legalized, and the US will basically be required to add an affirmative defense to UIGEA covering horseracing.
At that point, it's easy for the books and bettors to pretend that the sports betting activity is on the ponies not on the Patriots.  |