Antigua Free Trade & Processing Act

In 1994 Antigua and Barbuda passed the Free Trade and Processing Zone Act, creating a legal basis to license companies offering gaming and wagering over the internet. The island's regulator describes it as having pioneered internet gaming licensing that year, giving the earliest operators a lawful base rather than an unregulated grey market.

The Act established a free-trade zone and allowed the government to grant licences to interactive gaming and wagering businesses, later supported by the International Business Corporations Act and the Interactive Gaming and Interactive Wagering Regulations. Within a few years dozens of operators were licensed in the jurisdiction, and Antigua became one of the first recognised offshore homes for the emerging online gambling industry. This early-mover status carried lasting consequences. Because so many operators serving United States customers were based in Antigua, the small nation later became the complainant in the landmark 2003 to 2005 World Trade Organization dispute over US restrictions on cross-border online gambling.

It created the first lawful home for internet gambling and seeded the offshore licensing model that still shapes the industry.