The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma has taken an unusual step by obtaining an online gaming license from the Isle of Man which it plans to use to operate an online poker site from its Perkins Oklahoma base.
According to reports, the tribe spent two years seeking the license and created the company Ioway Internet Gaming Enterprise Limited on the Isle of Man.
The tribe also needed legal approval in the U.S. and sought it in federal district court in Oklahoma City. An arbitrator eventually ruled the tribe could offer online gambling to players located outside of the country. The arbitrator’s ruling was then certified by the court.
The tribe is able to offer online games under its Class III gaming compact but players have to be physically located in a jurisdiction where online gambling is legal.
“The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma is proud to be the first Native American tribe to secure an international online gaming license,” said tribe chairman Bobbo Walkup in a press release. “The process has taken longer than we may have envisioned when we began this journey, but, because we are a Native American tribe and held to higher gaming legal and regulatory standards, we had to ensure that we met all these standards.”
The tribe is expected to launch the site later this year and is rumored to be seeking licenses in other international jurisdictions. The site will be known as Pokertribe.com.
Walkup also used the announcement to say that another major announcement regarding the sale of a software company jointly-owned by the Iowa Tribe and Universal Entertainment will be made soon.
“We are in the final stages of the sale and have been working diligently with Universal Entertainment Group to finalize the transfer of the online gaming assets, which includes the software license agreement, to the company that has an internationally-known brand,” Walkup said. “This new relationship will be beneficial to the Tribe and the new software owner as PokerTribe.com enters the international online gaming market.
