This past December, the United States settled a trade dispute with Canada, Europe, and Japan over the recently enacted Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

The problem is that the law carves out exemptions for some forms of gambling, such as state lotteries and domestic horse racing, while banning most other forms, most notably poker, the most popular form of online wagering.

The most popular online poker sites are all based overseas, where online gambling is legal. This gave rise to the trade dispute between the U.S. and most of the rest of the western world.

The U.S. Trade Office won’t release the terms of the settlement—an odd development itself, given that the settlement involves U.S. tax dollars, was negotiated by employees of the U.S. government, and isn’t likely to involve any information related to national security. But most experts believe that given the immense popularity of online poker, and the fact that America is home not only to most of the world’s poker players but also the wealthiest, the settlement was likely in the tens of billions of dollars.

The U.S. was negotiating from a position of weakness. For the last few years, the tiny island nation of Antigua has been challenging the U.S. online gambling ban in the World Trade Organization. Antigua has won every step of the way.

Last week, just days after the U.S. settlement with Europe, Japan, and Canada, the WTO awarded Antigua $21 million in annual reparations for losses to the Antiguan economy caused by the American ban on Internet gambling. Because tariffs on U.S. goods would hurt the Antiguan economy far more than the U.S. economy, the WTO gave the okay for Antigua to recoup its losses in the form of copyright infringement, essentially making the country a haven for movie, music, and software piracy.

Had the U.S. not settled with the world’s economic powerhouses, we might have seen a massive battle unfold between the U.S. entertainment industry and the moral majority types behind the gambling ban.

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Author Contact Info: Radley Balko, Fox News