Oklahoma tribe to launch real-money gaming site
Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma to launch pokertribe.com later this year
The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma is poised to launch a real-money online gaming site after a court ruled it would not be breaking any state or federal laws by offering internet poker. [private]
The platform for pokertribe.com has been developed by Universal Entertainment Group and could go live this quarter, offering poker, casino, bingo, and slots games to players around the world.
âBusiness on the internet is coming fast and furious to all of our lives and is taking over our daily activities regardless of whether itâs business or personal,â tribe chairman Bobby Walkup, said.
âTo this end, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma is picking up on online gaming where others left off via the newly minted domain names of pokertribe.com and pokertribe.gov,â he added.
It is not the first time an Oklahoma tribe has tried to launch an online gaming site after the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes reached a compact agreement with the state back in 2013.
The tribes planned to use the pokertribe.com domain to offer egaming to players outside of the US, but were halted by the Department of the Interior (DoI).
The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes filed a lawsuit in a bid to overturn the DoI ruling, but a little over a month later dropped their case.
The Iowa Tribe said the state invoked the arbitration provision in the courts to resolve the issues raised by the DoI, and is confident with the ruling giving it the go-ahead.
âThe arbitratorâs decision applies to all tribes in the State of Oklahoma,â Walkup said.
âEvery tribe has the same opportunity as the Iowa Tribe to engage in internet gaming consistent with the arbitratorâs decision and the compact.
âWe look forward to moving forward and launching the site as soon as possible in 2016,â he added.