Antigua Receives $21 Million Annual Judgment in WTO Case Against U.S. --  The news here was anticlimactic, to say the least.  Antigua wanted billions, the U.S. wanted to pay off its judgment in Monopoly money, and the World Trade Organization, faced with a case that suddenly threatened its very existence, chose a very narrow interpretation of its decision in a weak attempt to save face all around.  The WTO granted a $21 million judgment on an annual basis to Antigua and Barbuda, in the form of intellectual-property rights abrogation (this means that Antigua can manufacture $21 million worth of "knockoff" copies of U.S.-made goods such as DVDs, CDs and the like, and in theory not have to worry about backlash from the U.S.).  The judgment was issued on the basis of lost market share for internet-based horseracing only, meaning that the larger issues of online poker, casino games and sportsbetting await some future day of reckoning in the eyes of the WTO.  The U.S. expressed pleasure at the decision, then asked Antigua not to "collect" on its judgment in the near term, anyway….

4th Annual NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship Announced --  NBC and POKER-PROductions have announced the dates for the 4th Annual Heads-Up Poker Championship, which will field 64 of the world’s best poker players in a single-elimination, bracket format to determine a winner.  The 2008 edition will be filmed Feb. 29-March 2 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and will again be broadcast over several Sundays on NBC in April and May.  The first two waves of invitees have also been announced, and include many of the most prominent names of the game, including players such as Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Chris Ferguson, Scotty Nguyen, Jamie Gold, Jerry Yang, Ted Forrest, Paul Wasicka, Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, and Antonio Esfandiari.

Portals Settle with U.S. DOJ Over Online-Gambling Ads --  A long-running legal dispute between the U.S. Department of Justice and several major online portals (search engines) has been settled.  The USDoJ reached an agreement with AOL, Yahoo! and Google, which collectively agreed to pay damages in the amount of $31.5 million.  The three companies each stopped accepting ads from online gambling companies in 2004, though there’s a whiff of PayPal behind the scenes; the California-based, eBay-owned online payment giant was the first big name to be forced from the online gambling market several years ago, and it has manuevered openly against other U.S. firms’ online-gambling interests ever since.  Whether or not the settlement reached by the three portals amounts to a form of legal blackmail remains a topic for debate.

Ladbrokes Million VI Goes to Beevers --  The last significant poker event before the holidays was the Ladbrokes Million VI, and it was captured by one of the hometown boys, Joe Beevers of Hendon Mob (and Full Tilt) fame.  Beevers won the $1M first prize after a lengthy heads-up battle against Ireland’s Marty Smyth.  Howard Lederer was the deepest-running American in the event, making the six-player final table.

RGA Files EU Complaint Against U.S. --  With no hope of indirect relief via the World Trade Organization’s decision re: online horseracing in favor of Antigua, several UK-based online gambling companies finally took the hint themselves.  The firms, collecting themselves as the Remote Gambling Association, have now filed a complaint with the European Union’s Trade Barriers Commission about the U.S.’s virtual blockade against overseas online gambling.  Said Clive Hawkswood, RGA's Chief Executive, "We have been left with no choice but to pursue all legal avenues available to challenge the U.S. Department of Justice for its discriminatory enforcement activities against European online gaming operators."  The complaint, made through the European Union, will undergo examination there for validity before moving forward.