The Rise of the Mohawk Part II

Anybody who has ever considered themselves an online poke player must surely have heard of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Any time you click on the “About Us” tab on a gambling website you will almost always find that they are regulated by the Mohawks of Kahnawake. Yet most players never even bother to look into who actually runs this commission and why it was created in the first place. What exactly does the Kahnawake Gaming Commission do?

For this reason Part II will be dedicated to explaining just what this organization is.

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission was founded in 1996 as an independent, 3rd-party interactive Gaming License provider, and ever since its creation the Commission has been empowered to “regulate and control gaming and related activities within and from the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake. These gaming activities are regulated in accordance with the highest principles of honesty and integrity.” This quote was taken from the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake website.

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission began licensing online casinos in 1999 and promoting themselves as an alternative to offshore gambling service providers, and the number of permits issued by the Commission since it started operating is now in the hundreds. They are by far one of the biggest gaming license providers in the entire world now. One reason that the Mohawk Territory is so popular in the online gaming industry is because it’s the only jurisdiction which has servers in North America that hosts real money online gambling sites.

There are also several advantages to being located in North America. First of all, the weather is much more stable in the Northeast than in the Caribbean, where most other gaming license providers operate. The Caribbean, which is constantly being barraged by hurricanes, can cause many problems for online poker players, and power outages are common – bad news for online gaming rooms that rely on these gaming license providers.

Also, because they are located in Montreal they have access to excellent bandwidth. A great deal of bandwidth is necessary to run so many online casinos at the same time. The casinos generally run faster when the bandwidth is strong, so this is a big advantage for them.

Finally, because the KGC is located in a first world country (as opposed to a third world country) many operators feel more comfortable doing business with them. Interestingly, Kahnawake has been involved in several discrepancies lately but they remain accountable for their actions.

A Question of Legality

Many have questioned whether or not the Kahnawake Gaming Commission is even legal, taking into account that online casinos in Canada are against the law. The indigenous tribes argue that they have the right to do what they please on their reservation and that it is of no concern to the Canadian government. Gambling operations in Canada also require a provincial gambling license in order to be legit, which the Kahnawake do not have. They use the argument that because the Canadian Constitutional Act allots the Kahnawake and other indigenous groups “a broad right to manage the use of their reserve lands”. They believe this includes the right to participate in and to regulate gambling activities on their reserves.

Because the Canadian government doesn’t believe that gambling is an integral feature to the group’s culture, they hold that it is operating under illegal status. For them to break Canadian law, they must prove that their actions are in accordance with their ancient traditions. This is a key tenet of the Constitution. As far as the Kahnawake are concerned there is no problem, nor has there ever been one.

Although the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has an overall positive record of keeping on top of the various online casinos, there have been slipups. Most recently their scandal involving Absolute Poker, which is owned by the Mohawk tribe, was found to be cheating. Because of this recent cheating scandal the Kahnawake Gaming Commission was excluded from this year’s UK whitelist and can no longer operate in England.

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which is actually run by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, will have many problems to deal with in the future. This Council, which is made up of a Grand Chief as well as eleven Chiefs that are democratically elected by a majority vote done through a biennial general election, are the ones that will deal with the Commission as well as the problems that have come with it. Participating in the gambling industry has brought them a great deal of success but the influx of wealth has also brought its share of problems for families in the community.

Due to the success of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, the Mohawks of Kahnawake have one of the highest per family annual incomes of any indigenous community in Canada. In recent years, the rise in wealth has corresponded with a rise in drug abuse from within the territory. Crack and cocaine have both become enormous problems not only for the adults in the community, but children as well. Sometimes youth as young as thirteen are being admitted to rehab clinics for cocaine addiction.

Part III will address the problems that have come to the Kahnawake since the creation of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Be sure to stay tuned!

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