WaPo: Internet gaming, with a Mohawk connection

Monday, December 1, 2008

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"At first glance, Joe Norton and the Kahnawake might seem like surprising players to control a large share of the $18 billion Internet gambling business.

While in his twenties, Norton worked as an ironworker helping to build the World Trade Center in New York City. At the age of 28 he was elected to the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, the governing body for the 8,000-member tribe located minutes from Montreal. Two years later, Norton took over as grand chief, a position he held for more than two decades.

For years, the Kahnawake had relied on cigarette sales and payments from the federal government to get by. Under Norton, they began to look at gambling as a way to lift up the tribe's economic fortunes. In the mid-1990s, Norton promoted an effort to open a land-based casino on the reservation, but the tribe voted it down. A second referendum was also rejected.

Norton and the Kahnawake shifted their focus to Internet gambling. Several factors played to their advantage.

First, the Kahnawake consider themselves a sovereign nation, outside the laws of the federal and provincial governments. So, even though Internet gambling is considered illegal in Canada, they could set themselves up as a licensing authority and not have to worry about being prosecuted.

Second, they were close to the potentially lucrative U.S. market with millions of online gamblers. That was attractive to Internet gaming sites. Finally, running near the 35,000-acre reservation was a major broadband pipeline capable of handling millions of bets and other transactions."

Get the Story:
The Mohawk Connection (The Washington Post 11/30)

Inside Bet Series:
Players Gamble on Honesty, Security of Internet Betting (The Washington Post 11/30)
Prohibition vs. Regulation Debated As U.S. Bettors Use Foreign Sites (The Washington Post 12/1)