TEXT OF STORY

CHERYL GLASER: Congress is cracking down on Internet gambling. But as Ashley Milne-Tyte reports, a tiny country in the Caribbean is fighting back and calling in the big guns: the Word Trade Organization.

ASHLEY MILNE-TYTE: Antigua and Barbuda hosts many online casinos. It says by making it tough for Americans use them, the US is choking off the islands’ revenue and threatening jobs.

Peter Morici of the University of Maryland says it is legal under WTO law to impose rules that protect public morals, an argument the US has used in curbing online gambling. But still . . .

PETER MORICI:“There’s nothing more inherently immoral about gambling on the Internet abroad than there is about gambling domestically. It’s hypocritical of congress to put in place these restrictions and I think there’s a decent shot they could get overturned in the WTO.”

But if the WTO sides with the US, he warns other countries could have an excuse to outlaw American Internet exports using similar arguments.

I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.