The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) is publicly refuting claims that it approved a tribal operator’s online gambling and daily fantasy sports (DFS) operation.
Earlier this week, the Las Vegas-based Atlantis Gaming Corporation (AGC) issued a press release claiming it had “obtained approval from two federal agencies for its refinement of online gaming.” The release also touted plans for an initial public offering of a new DFS company early next year.
The AGC’s CEO, Donald L. Bailey, is also CEO of the Atlantis Internet Group (ATIG), which in 2012 announced plans to launch the Tribal Gaming Network (TGN). The TGN’s plan was to offer online gambling via terminals based in tribal casinos, which would be linked via intranet to terminals in other tribal casinos.
The AGC’s release said it had entered into a licensing deal with ATIG to use the TGN product, and that Bailey had led the TGN through “approval processes” from the NIGC and the US Department of Justice.
But on Thursday, the NIGC issued its own release stating that it “has not reviewed any DFS or on-line betting game for Atlantis Gaming Corporation and does not approve or license games for play in tribal gaming facilities.”
The NIGC said its Office of General Counsel had issued an advisory opinion in 2009 (viewable here) regarding the TGN’s predecessor, the Casino Gateway Network. The NIGC emphasized that the 2009 opinion “was not an opinion on internet gaming. The NIGC has not issued an opinion on Daily Fantasy Sports for Atlantis Gaming Corporation or any other entity.”
NIGC chairman Jonodev Chaudhuri added that the NIGC had received “numerous inquiries” regarding the AGC’s release, but the NIGC “was not a part of the approval process described in this release and the Commission feels it is important to clarify our position.”
POKERTRIBE.COM MISSES YET ANOTHER REAL-MONEY LAUNCH DATE
AGC’s release also stated that tribal casinos who joined the TGN could “accept international bets from legal gaming jurisdictions.” A similar pitch has been made by PokerTribe.com, the Universal Entertainment Group-powered gambling site of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma.
PokerTribe.com began offering free-play gaming in May and promised real-money gaming was coming in August. That was pushed back until Oct. 15 and the site now claims that real-money action will arrive in “Winter of 2016/17.” (UEG’s equally daffy online-casinos-on-jet-airliners project’s arrival date has similarly gone from Jan. 9 to “Summer 2017.”)
In August, the site blamed the delay on the need to “coordinate with foreign governments on the worldwide launch” of real-money play. The site’s latest notice adopts a triumphalist tone reminiscent of Donald Trump, saying it’s busy “getting all of their international gaming licenses & successfully doing so.”
CalvinAyre.com is a staunch supporter of tribal governments participating in gambling ventures, but this dog just won’t hunt. The previous Oklahoma tribe that hired UEG to build them a gaming site eventually realized – after giving UEG $9.4m – that this international betting concept is unworkable. The Iowa Tribe will likely arrive at the same conclusion in due course.
On a personal note, I’d like to alert the gambling world to my new website (which you can reach by adding .com to Stevenstradbrooke). Actually, it’s not really new, and it’s not really mine. The site – whose domain was registered on May 19, the same day I wrote an unflattering article about UEG CEO Freridoun ‘Fred’ Khalilian and his history of telemarketing fraud – redirects to a rather steamy gay porn site.
According to WHOIS data, ‘my’ website’s registration expires on May 19, 2017. Anybody want to wager on whether PokerTribe.com will be taking real-money wagers before my beefcake site comes up for renewal? (At least when ‘my’ site says ‘coming soon,’ it means it.) Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to somehow squeeze into these assless chaps for my next scene.
