While the ambiguous nature of the recent World Trade Organization ruling regarding U.S. policy toward online gambling may have left some Internet gambling companies a little nervous about the ability of Americans to play at online casinos based in Antigua, the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) may provide a glimmer of hope for those companies since it does not contain the “public morals” clause that the WTO agreement contains. This means that the U.S. cannot argue that Americans should not be allowed to access Internet gambling sites in Central America based on the U.S. duty to uphold public morals.

Government officials don’t seem too concerned about their ability to prohibit online gambling, however, because states will still have the right to impose their own gambling (or anti-gambling) laws even if the Internet gambling sites are based in Costa Rica or other Central American nations. CAFTA, therefore, may not be the glimmer of hope that the Internet gambling companies were anticipating. CAFTA does contain a grandfather clause which allows existing laws in the United States regarding gambling to remain, thereby allowing the different states to prevent their residents from playing at online casinos. For example, Utah and Hawaii, which prohibit gambling, would be allowed to continue their prohibition on gambling and even extend it to online gambling. Of course, this does not apply to all states in America since some do already permit some forms of gambling. In this case, those states that permit gambling would not be able to prevent their residents from gambling at Internet sites.