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Canada
Eyes Online Casinos Licensed in Kahnawake
by Devon Chappell, News Staff Writer
March 5, 2008
In our last news
article, we discussed the motions by the French and
Canadian governments to crack down against online
gambling activities (for their various reasons and
motivations). For France, their motivation is clearly
about protecting their monopolistic state gambling
empire, which hypocritically now seeks to cater to UK
online gamblers, yet wants to keep its own citizens from
gambling at foreign operated online casinos - even those
regulated by jurisdictions like Malta and UK, which fall
under European Union law.
And so now we turn
our attention to the Canadian government, where threats
to prohibit online gambling seems to be more in line
with those motivations of the U.S. - a tinge of
conservatism with carve outs for the horseracing
industry. In a recent report by The National Post, the
Canadian government is openly talking about putting an
end to online casinos and betting sites licensed by the
Kahnawake Gaming Commission. For anybody unfamiliar with
Kahnawake, it is a Mohawk Indian tribal enclave located
within Canadian borders. As for the Gaming Commission,
it is one of the largest licensors of betting sites in
the world.
In fact, the
Kahnwake Gaming Commission has perhaps grown too large
for its own good. Although there are many excellent
online casinos regulated by Kahnawake, such as the
Casino Rewards group,
Captain Cooks Casino, some bad one's
have been able to slip through the cracks. Recently kept
off of the UK online casino whitelist, the Commission
was also associated with one of the largest online poker
cheating controversy's to date. The commission itself
was not guilty of any wrong doing. However, the way in
which they handled the scandal was nothing short of
sweeping things under the rug.
But for the
Canadian government, it isn't a personal vendetta
against the Mohawk tribe. Other measures to crack down
on online gambling activities, including moves to
prevent Canadian citizens from making financial
transactions with online casinos, resembles more of the
initial actions of the U.S. when it began an onslaught
against online gambling activities. There have not been
any "big busts" or arrests of CEO's, but Kahnawake could
very well become the high profile target the Canadian
government would need to show it means business.
The Mohawks of
Kahnawake, however, need only say two words: Sovereign
Nation. Since they are indeed a sovereign nation,
Canadian laws do not apply to them. This is their
argument and defense. Furthermore, the Mohawks are
hiding behind Section 35 of the Constitution, which
specifically protects Native Culture. Well, I didn't
know online gambling was a part of native culture, but I
guess if the flood of money coming in from online
gambling activities helps to sustain culture, then they
have a point. Time will tell if Canadian Minister of
Justice, Rob Nicholson will be able to back his
offensive.
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