Online Poker Goes Live In the US

Author: Neha Agrawal

Just two short weeks ago, history was made in the USA by a Native American tribe. No, a group of disgruntled tribesmen did not attack members of congress, nor rehash the Little Big Horn, a Native American online poker room went live in the USA. Affiliated to the Northern Bear Casino, on November 8th 2012, online poker made history. They are also the first North American Tribal Nation to offer these games.

The new website powered by GEObet Network's Tribal Gambling Network with the Wapi-Maskwa iGaming Act performing as the regulatory, licensing authority. As well as poker however, the site will also offer a choice of casino gambling games. They are also licensed internationally in Curacao, Malta and Kahnawake.

This tribe has successfully operated the First Nations casinos in Saskatchewan for almost 20 years, and Bernard Shepherd from NorthernBearCasino.com believes the online space is where they belong. As far as he is concerned the website is operating under the same sovereign rights as their land-based casinos. This is a Canadian concern which commenced operations in 1993.

Bernard Shepherd was quick to add that his forefathers had been trading “internationally” for more than 100 years. He says that “entrepreneurship has been in our DNA for 10,000-plus years”. The fact that they are now trading online in North America is actually quite cheeky when we think that online poker (or other real money gambling) in the USA is still kind of considered to be illegal, despite a Department of Justice opinion on the current money-transfer wire act laws.

When this opinion was released to the public domain, we were under the impression that US States would pick up on it fast and start to offer poker online as quickly as possible. Although Nevada has, and has legalised this form of poker, so far no poker sites in this state have gone live. It seems that this tribal casino has jumped the gun and beaten everyone to it. Let’s hope it does not have the same effect as the Little Big Horn.

Chief Executive Officer of GEObet Gambling Network - Gerry Gionet – added that this, their turnkey solution, is “one of the finest online casinos in the market”, and it is the company’s goal to unite tribal gaming opportunities in the world of online poker, and other forms of Internet gambling.