PokerTribe.com under investigation
The National Indian Gaming Commission is investigating the firm developing the Iowa Tribe’s gaming website for previous unfinished businesses.
US.- The federally-recognised Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma is working with the Universal Entertainment Group to start an international gaming website under the domain “PokerTribe.com”. However, The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) is investigating the Miami-based firm as it received US$9.4 million from other tribes to assist their development which it never launched.
The Oklahoman newspaper reported that the NIGC is looking into the deal that Universal had with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma in 2012. The company agreed to develop their website “PokerTribes.com” but, according to the tribe, it never did and the project spun into litigation with the US Department of the Interior.
Speaker for the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma Reggie Wassana told The Oklahoman: “A lot of money was paid and nothing was ever received,” Wassana told The Oklahoman. “Nothing became of it. It was $9.4 million for a website basically. There was no realisation of profits and no actual working Internet gaming.” Wasana also said that the NIGC asked his office about the Universal Entertainment Group regarding the failed deal.
Fereidoun Khalilian, a consultant for the firm, told the media outlet that he doesn’t expect any action to be taken against it since it has been under investigation by the FBI for a while yet no charges were filed: “The FBI went through all of our financials dollar by dollar. We did nothing wrong.”
Meanwhile, the Iowa Tribe expected to launc is site last year following approval by an arbitrator who said it didn’t violate any federal or state laws. However, they’re still expecting a licence from the Isle Of Man’s Gambling Supervision Commission but “the site will launch once we (the Tribe) secure the license) David McCullough, a Tribe attorney, said. He added that “it has been a long process and an interesting process because it just hasn’t been done before; so everything is new” and he said that the investigation by the NIGC won’t impact the tribe’s plans.
The NIGC released a statement where they explained that the organism “does not comment on any potential or ongoing legal investigations but has the authority to make referrals to other federal, state or tribal authorities when potential criminal activity occurs,” but refused “to comment whether this action has taken place.”
