06/08/2003 - 1:19 AM ET

THE NATIVES ARE GETTING RESTLESS: BETUS MOVES TO KAHNAWAKE INDIAN RESERVE

Christopher Costigan, Sports911.com

911 confirmed early Sunday morning that controversial betting office, BetUs, also known as "Little NASA" is in the process of setting up operations on the Kahnawake Indian Reservation outside of Montreal, Canada.  The news first broke on Majorwager.com Saturday evening.

Kahnawake has had its fair share of controversial outfits and misguided decisions related to player disputes ever since they began issuing online gaming licenses in 2000.  One of the most infamous cases involves, Camelot Sports.  That sportsbook's owner, Mark Delpopollo, left Kahnawake faster than a speeding tomahawk, stiffing nearly all his customers in the process. 

Other complaints lodged against online casinos operating from Kahnawake have mostly fallen on deaf ears.

As reported on TheRx.com, BetUs.com and its affiliated site Angelciti, have been thrust into the spotlight of late also.  Angelciti angered several online casino players after refusing to honor its advertised bonus policy while BetUs.com admitted to withholding funds from at least one big sports bettor.

Kahnawake is likely to have their hands full with this bunch! 

Many expatriates from the U.S. have had their own reservations about setting up so close to home in neighboring Canada. 

Although located right outside of beautiful Montreal, the Kahnawake Reserve is considered a sovereign nation.  The natives that reside here have engaged in violent uprisings against the French Canadian government in the past decade.

But if Joey and Tommy Rizzo (BetUs.com's owners) think they are going to find safe haven from right wing Puritans like Attorney General John Ashcroft in an Indian Reservation just north of the U.S. border, they better think again! 

"Look at how the United States government made their way into Iraq," explained one offshore sportsbook operator who wished not to be identified.  "Does anyone really think the U.S. is going to hesitate entering a territory like Kahnawake?"

Then again, perhaps the United States government may want to think twice.  History shows this is one group of Indians that do not back down so easily. 

The period between March 11 and September 26, 1990 was marked by the confrontation between Mohawk Indians, the Quebec Provincial Police, and the Canadian Armed Forces near Oka. The first barricades were in place in March, and the last torn down in September, with considerable cost and damage to both sides, in what has generally become referred to as a standoff.

The problem started when the courts allowed a controversial and publicly challenged Oka Town Council plan to develop a nine-hole golf course into an eighteen-hole golf course, insensitively located on one of the last small parcels of sacred grounds, including Mohawk a meeting place and a centuries old cemetery.

Despite being outnumbered by the massive fire power of thousands of army troops, the Mohawks emerged triumphant though trodden, and the land was protected. Even the barbaric aftermath of police brutality and sweeping arrests, the fundamental story which continues to cause tremors amongst Canada's military establishment is that a small band of angry natives held off the army.

Most of those who operate online casinos and sportsbetting shops within Kahnawake have their roots in Europe (i.e. Sports Interaction and Intertops Casino) or South Africa (Microgaming, Kahnawake's biggest licensee). 

BetUS is not just setting up a so-called "mirror operation" (also known as a satellite operation).  The plans call for this sportsbook to move completely out of Costa Rica and set up a full service call center there.  The company currently employs over a hundred people in Costa Rica and very few are likely to come along for the trip.

BetUs employees can expect to be pushed off the cliff by owners, Tommy and Joey Rizzo, like a bunch of hapless water buffalo.  Perhaps maybe the Rizzo's will decide to pay their employees the severance pay due....somehow we have our doubts. 

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