<font color="brown">Primary Actions:
1. Let's join the WSEX action plan this week and next. It's good that the sites are fighting back, so we should support that, I think. When writing these letters, I think we'll want to be careful to tailor them to the specific representatives and senators, of course.
In addition to contacting individual members of Congress, let's contact both the majority and the minority offices of the House Subcommittee on Trade. </font>
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This email is being sent to all World Sports Exchange customers as a courtesy to the Antigua Online Gaming Association.
Greetings Players,
As you may be aware, online gaming has been under attack by the United States for the last decade. The Government of Antigua and Barbuda has successfully challenged the malicious prosecution of Antiguan operators in the World Trade Organization. The WTO has found that the US's application of its laws against Antiguan entities is protectionist and in violation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services.
Now that Antigua has won the legal battle, it can use political support in Congress. Here's how you can help. Please email and phone your Representative in the House of Representatives and your two Senators. Remind them that the United States needs to abide by the decision in the Antigua-Gaming matter if they expect other countries to comply with WTO decisions in favor of the United States.
Here is a link to a letter to the USTR from Representative Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs:
http://www.antiguawto.com/LettertoUSTR.pdf
Rep. Ros-Lehtinen eloquently noted, "...our failure to resolve this dispute may harm our credibility as we seek to press countries like China regarding their violations on a range of issues, including intellectual property protection, subsidies, and currency manipulation." She further warned, "In the event the United States fails to reach a satisfactory resolution of the Antigua dispute, it could provide China with an argument to ignore a WTO decision favorable to the United States."
Please send the link above to your Representative and Senators. Ask them to send similar letters to the United States Trade Representative. Let them know you vote, you pay taxes, and you think the United States should comply with the decision in the Antigua-Gaming matter.
To contact your Representative and two Senators, follow the links below or call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and give them your zip code. Make sure you call three times.
http://www.house.gov
http://www.senate.gov
We will continue to fight the legal battle, please help us with the political fight.
Thank you,
Antigua Online Gaming Association
www.aoga.ag
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<font color="brown">2. Sen. John Kyl grilled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at last week's hearings not about the issue with the fired attorneys general, but about enforcement of UIGEA! He seems to think his anti-gambling platform enjoys 100% support.
Sen. Kyl bragging about UIGEA on his website, calling it the 'Kyl Internet Gambling Ban'!
Let's contact Sen. Kyl and Atty Gen Alberto Gonzales (if he still has a job next week) and tell them we support freedom to choose to gamble online. Kyl will not change his mind, but he needs to know there's a political price to pay for his positions. I'm going to write to him to criticize his big-government solution to the "problem" of people deciding on their own to play poker online and to inform him that I'll contribute to his next opponent (yeah, I know that's five years away, but many of us are not AZ residents and we need something actionable). Another benefit to writing this one letter is that we'll have templates for future letters to anti-freedom members of Congress.
Thanks everyone! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]