A deal between Quebec’s Kahnawake Gaming Commission and the state of New Jersey to block U.S. gamblers from making online bets through the commission’s data center was done to increase the tribe’s recognition as a global gaming regulator.
Speaking to the Montreal Financial Post, tribal Grand Chief Joe Norton said that the deal not only increases the tribe’s status, but allows for future opportunities.
“It brings us to the forefront,” Norton said. “It creates that kind of recognition and understanding, and in the online gaming world that’s huge.”
Kahnawake had been negotiating with the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement since it was reported that the company that managed its data center, Continent 8, may have provided services to gambling websites operating in the state.
Kahnawake had no restrictions on what markets were targeted by licensees, which allowed sites to target U.S. gamblers, the paper said.
Under the deal, the commission says sites including Bovada Casino will no longer be operating out of its data center and it will take regulatory action against any others found to be accepting U.S. wagers.
Norton acknowledged that the commission could lose some customers, but said the deal also establishes a relationship to work alongside less experienced regulators in the future, including a potential move to create a conglomeration of online gaming in New York and all the New England states.
“I’d say it’s a first step. We’ve come to a common understanding that we jointly will work with each other,” Norton told the Financial Post.
He also says this is an opportunity to establish online gaming in Native communities in the United States, where it is currently illegal.
“This understanding with the state of New Jersey that we’ve reached creates and sets the building blocks to be able to go to the different states where there is Native American gaming taking place and build that up,” Norton said.
Since 1999 the less than 50-square-kilometre reserve of about 9,000 people has hosted a data center called Mohawk Internet Technologies where it sells bandwidth, electricity and rack space, charging third-party operators a fee to install and maintain their servers. The gaming commission also collects revenue for licensing, but it says this is only to pay its overhead, the paper said.
