Among the topics discussed at the recent Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association conference and trade show in Oklahoma City was PokerTribes.com, an internationally accessible site that would have been operated by the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Tribes. In September 2013, the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes were poised to move forward with the site, which would have levied a 20 percent tax on revenues to be directed to Oklahoma’s state budget.
The site would have been subject to the cooperative agreement signed in April 2013 by Governor Mary Fallin and Two Tribes Governor Janice Prairie-Chief Boswell. It banned a tribal-run social gaming network accessible in the continental United States but would have allowed PokerTribes.com. Since 2005, tribal compacts allow sovereign negotiations over anything of value, including an operational system like iGaming, which Pokertribes.com was set to use for its global online poker and an online casino. After some tweaking required by the Department of Interior, a new agreement was signed, in September 2013.
Officials from the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association said it was glad for member tribes to join the “rapidly changing and developing international gaming industry. Worldwide projections show the annual marketplace to be at $30 billion. This is the next step in generating much needed revenue for Oklahoma Tribes and the State of Oklahoma.”
But even though nothing has changed from a legal standpoint, PokerTribes.com has not materialized. OIGA Director Brian Foster said with 39 federally recognized tribes, one or more of them could take advantage of “the transformational framework for online gaming, without bringing the poker-playing ability into the U.S. domestic market.” Otherwise, international interests who are “ready to go” are likely to come to Oklahoma and control the Indian tribes through exclusive contracts for “free play” sites that violate the 2005 compact.
For example, Foster pointed out officials at the Bulgaria-based PokerStars.bg, which launched last week, said intends to become the first-in-market for world access. In July, Italy-based GTECH bought IGT. Australia-based Aristocrat bought VGT. And recently Scientific Games bought Bally Technologies.
Foster also noted residents of Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware now can gamble online for real money. They’re getting positioned for the big, worldwide play, he said.
Meanwhile, PokerTribes.com floats in cyberspace, awaiting a tribal partner, with this message on its website: “Coming soon to the web, mobile, iPad, laptop, desktop & apps near you. This is going to be the first international real-time, real-money online casino, launched by the American Indian tribes of Cheyenne & Arapaho, right here from our sovereign land.”
