Antigua’s Prime Minister says his country’s “patience is wearing thin” over the United States’ refusal to negotiate a fair resolution to the two countries’ World Trade Organization (WTO) online gambling dispute.

This week, Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne delivered an address to the nation detailing his frustration in getting the US to abide by the 2004 WTO ruling that Antigua-licensed online gambling operators had been unfairly blocked from accessing the US market.

Browne said the illegal US action had resulted in “lost lucrative jobs for our people and significant revenues to our National Treasury” while the US “benefited by hundreds of millions of dollars from penalties and fines derived from prosecuting” Antigua-based gaming operators.

In 2007, WTO arbitrators determined that Antigua’s economy had suffered a $21m annual loss from the US gambling ban. As the US has so far refused to pay a penny of these damages, the total outstanding bill now exceeds $200m, and Browne says a relatively poor nation like Antigua “cannot afford to be deprived” of this sum.