Antigua Jurisdiction in Troubled Times

Published: Saturday, March 21, 2009 Online-Casinos.com

The United Kingdom's whitelist for online gambling advertising is a point of pride for those who have managed to get on it. Antigua and the online casinos in that jurisdiction considered themselves lucky, in that regard.

The recent financial scandal involving billionaire Allen Stanford may cause the island he dominated to lose the prized rating for its web based gambling industry.
Stanford and company were present in almost every division of the Antiguan economy, and the Stanford bank was a major player on the island. The U.S. Department of Justice revealed allegations Stanford ran a multi-billion dollar pyramid scheme, and the Stanford International Bank sold phony deposit certificates.

UK legislators have expressed concern that the same regulators who control the finances, including Stanford's bank, watch over the nation's online casinos. Those lawmakers want a review of Antigua's status on the white list and question Antigua's ability to properly regulate its online gaming operations.

John Sinclair,a long time resident of the tiny nation, said, " Didn't one uncontrolled trader bring Barclay's Bank to the edge of ruin a couple of years ago? And the banks there haven't done too great a job picking investments, have they? Still, they want to bully us," Members of Parliament in the U.K. are asking for more transparency of the whitelisting procedure. They want an opportunity to scrutinize the process by which the decisions on online gambling sites are made. The Antiguan government is still reeling from the effects of the U.S.A. ban on online gambling, now they are in jeopardy of loosing the precious status offered by the U.K. whitelist. It is plain for all to see this is one more set back for a jurisdiction that has seen it's fair share of troubled times.