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ST JOHN’S, Antigua: A decision in the long drawn-out gaming dispute between Antigua and the United States may be announced soon.

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Will international pressure from the formidable, 27-nation European Union finally push the United States into legalizing Web bookies and online casinos?

Maybe. And maybe sooner than later.

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WASHINGTON, Sept 17 (Reuters) – A dispute over U.S. enforcement actions against European Union online gambling companies could be headed to the World Trade Organization soon, an European industry group said on Wednesday.

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ — Congress and members of the executive branch will be visited by a team of European Union investigators this week, headed by senior E.U. trade official M. Jean-Francois Brakeland, head of the European Commission’s dispute settlement office. The E.U. delegation is looking into allegations that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) breaches international treaties by continuing to enforce WTO-violating laws against E.U. businesses and individuals who once, but no longer, participated in the U.S. online gaming industry.

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U.S. and Antigua and Barbuda officials have once again extended the deadline for resolving their online gambling dispute.

The latest deadline for coming to an agreement about the U.S. online gambling ban and the compensation Antigua and Barbuda would receive because of it was July 11. That deadline came and went without an agreement.

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Another round of talks between Antiguan and United States officials concluded this week with the two sides apparently no closer to resolving their World Trade Organization conflict over online gambling.

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ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – This Caribbean nation’s top finance official says another deadline has been set with Washington to resolve a feud over Internet gambling after recent talks have fizzled.

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Washington and this tiny Caribbean country will not resolve their dispute over Internet gambling by a Friday deadline, according to Antigua and Barbuda’s attorney in the trade battle.

Antigua and Barbuda accuses the U.S. of crippling its lucrative gambling industry by banning Americans from placing online bets with gambling operators, including those based in the twin-island country of 70,000 inhabitants.

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Antigua and Barbuda may be only days away from effecting a settlement with the United States on the internet gambling trade dispute.

This was the view expressed by Minister of Finance and the Economy Dr. Errol Cort, who was optimistic about an early end to the dispute after a series of meetings with US officials last week.

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The trade dispute between the United States and several countries in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean over Internet gambling has been embarrassing, expensive and now, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, a national security secret.

At least that’s what Ed Brayton, a freelance writer who opposes the government’s anti-gambling measures, found when he tried to get a copy of the agreement the United States has reached with the European Union, Japan and Canada on the issue. The accord spells out what trade concessions the United States is making to compensate those countries for U.S. laws and regulations that try to prevent Americans from wagering on foreign gambling Web sites. The latest law, enacted in 2006, prohibits U.S. banks and other financial institutions from processing any Internet gambling transactions.

Antigua and Barbuda, a former British colony in the Caribbean, touched off the dispute in 2003 when it brought a case to the World Trade Organization arguing that the United States’ efforts against gambling on foreign Web sites were an unfair trade practice because it exempted domestic horse racing Web sites. The WTO sided with the tiny Caribbean nation, which has yet to reach an agreement with the United States on compensation.

Other countries have, though, and Brayton filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative after the deal was announced in December. He says he just wanted to know precisely how much the United States was conceding in the December deal to maintain its gambling ban. The agency’s chief FOIA officer, Carmen Suro-Bredie, replied that the USTR was withholding the agreement because it was “classified in the interest of national security.”

In announcing the agreement with the EU, Japan and Canada, USTR spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said it “involves commitments to maintain our liberalized markets for warehousing services, technical testing services, research and development services and postal services relating to outbound international letters.”

She did not respond to requests for more information about the deal.

Brayton says he’s planning to appeal the denial, which would force the trade office to explain why the agreement implicates national security. He says he suspects the agency may have something else in mind: hiding what could amount to billions of dollars in trade concessions.

“I can’t even imagine a reasonable explanation other than that in the furthest reaches of my imagination,” he says.