With the ink barely dry on its federal court authority to start an international online poker operation from servers on its tribal lands (see previous reports) the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma is moving fast to get the show on the road.
On Friday the tribe announced a timetable for the launch of PokerTribe which includes the commencement of real-money operations on August 1 2016 with the technical help of Florida-based Universal Entertainment Group.
This will be preceded by the launch of play-money operations to generate interest and tweak the system, starting as early as May 17 2016.
The tribe is also targeting the international “in-flight” industry with a PokerTribe offering designed for literally high-flying poker fans; that is scheduled to go into operation for real-money next year on January 9, assuming there are no unforeseen obstacles.
US-based players are excluded from the PokerTribe action, although there is possibly an argument that could be made regarding collaboration with the three US states that have so far legalised online gambling within intrastate frameworks – Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware; that would presumably have to be the subject of negotiation.
Fred Khalilian, CEO of UEG, has made the unlikely claim that the PokerTribe venture could generate up to a billion dollars in tax revenue for Oklahoma, operating from servers at the Iowa tribe’s headquarters in Perkins, a Payne County community south of Stillwater.