Kahnawake and Antigua Form Online Gambling Pact

BY LYNN MOORE, THE GAZETTE

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission and the gambling regulator for the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda are to form a unique "inter-jurisdictional" alliance, the regulators said yesterday.

The formal pact, which is to come into effect in September, would facilitate licence holders being hosted on servers in either jurisdiction, said Murray Marshall, general counsel for the Kahnawake commission.

"It made sense for us to work together," Marshall said in an interview.

Antigua's clients will have access to the wider bandwidth and technical services offered by Mohawk Internet Technologies while MIT could get new business, he said.

What it also does is link Kahnawake, a global hub of online gambling that has been shunned -if not denigrated -by governments in Quebec and Ottawa, with one that has been blessed by the British government.

The former British colonies of Antigua and Barbuda were designated a white-list jurisdiction in 2008, a highly sought hallmark that guarantees regulatory checks and standards and allows its clients to advertise their online brands in Britain.

The Kahnawake-Antigua

memorandum of understanding announced yesterday would not allow Kahnawake's licence holders to advertise in Britain, Marshall said.

"Antigua's white list is only a benefit to Antigua's licensees," he said.

Gambling regulators do have inter-jurisdictional information-sharing agreements, but this "first of its kind" agreement provides for an unprecedented degree of flexibility for licensing and hosting needs, Marshall said.

Last month, an article in a U.S. gaming law journal argued that Canada should provide a legal framework for aboriginal gambling.

The piece, written by Montreal lawyer Cookie Lazarus, noted that Kahanwake's online operation has existed for more than a decade.

This year, Quebec gave its blessing to online gambling, authorizing Loto-Quebec to offer online poker and sports betting.

Antigua has about a dozen licensees, while MIT has about 50, Marshall said.

The pact between Kahnawake and the Financial Services Regulatory Commission of Antigua and Barbuda does not involve any capital outlay.

lmoore@thegazette.canwest.com