The Iowa tribe of Oklahoma, working through its Isle of Man subsidiary Ioway Internet Gaming Enterprise Limited, has secured an online gambling licence from the IOM Gambling Supervision Commission, opening the door for its plans to launch an international online poker enterprise.
The licence comes a little less than two years after the tribe first announced its intent to operate an international online gaming website from its tribal lands located within the exterior borders of the State of Oklahoma.
InfoPowa readers may recall that the tribe had to resort to litigation with state authorities in order to progress its plans.
Announcing the acquisition of a licence, Iowa Tribe chairman Bobby Walkup said this was the last step necessary before the Iowa Tribe could begin exercising its rights under the gaming compact with the State of Oklahoma to operate an online poker site from the tribe’s lands in Perkins, Oklahoma.
The right to conduct such gaming was confirmed when an arbitrator sided with the Tribe in a dispute with the State of Oklahoma over the scope of gaming authorised under the gaming compact.
While the Iowa Tribe and its Isle of Man gaming company are not setting a specific launch date for the Pokertribe.com operation, Walkup said the site will go live sometime this fall. He said a major announcement will be made within the next two weeks concerning the sale of the software company jointly owned by the Tribe and Universal Entertainment Group to an internationally-recognised company.
“We are in the final stages of the sale and have been working with Universal Entertainment Group to finalise the transfer of the online gaming assets, which includes the software licence agreement, to the company that has an internationally-known brand,” Walkup said.
“This new relationship will be beneficial to the tribe and the new software owner as PokerTribe.com enters the international online gaming market.”
Walkup said that his tribe will be the first Native American tribe to secure an international online gaming licence, observing:
“The process has taken longer than we may have envisioned when we began this journey, but, because we are a Native American tribe and held to higher gaming legal and regulatory standards, we had to ensure that we met all these standards.”
Walkup said that in 2016 representatives of the tribe visited the Isle of Man and met with officials there to inquire into the licensing process. Upon returning from the Isle of Man, the Iowa Tribe and its internet gaming company incorporated Ioway Internet Gaming Enterprise Limited within the Isle of Man to secure the gaming licence.
The license application was submitted in February 2017 and approved on June 13, 2017 at a meeting of the Gambling Supervision Commission attended by a number of Iowa Tribe representatives.
Following the June meeting, the Gambling Commission issued a letter stating the application was approved but that four conditions had to be met prior to the actual issuance of the license. Once the four conditions were met, the Isle of Man gaming commission issued the licence.
“Our attention has now turned to going live with PokerTribe.com,” the chairman said, revealing that a further announcement is imminent regarding the appointment of a general manager who has extensive experience in international online gaming to oversee the launch of PokerTribe.com.