 Newsletter Signup
Stay informed with the
NEW Casino City Times newsletter! |
Gaming News
Canadian Indians propose Internet Casino30 October 2000The File Hills Indians, a group of five bands in southern Saskatchewan, plan to open an Internet casino and to offer international licenses to gambling concerns across cyberspace that wish to run casinos on the Internet, despite the provincial government''s warning that it may be illegal. “The bands will join Australia, Costa Rica, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands as international Internet gambling sponsors,” says James Jestrab, general manager of File Hills Telecom and Internet Inc. “You can apply to the country of Australia and, for around US $150,000, they will issue you an international gaming license in order to game on the Internet,” he explains. “That''s the same type of thing that the File Hills bands would do as well. We would be like Australia - a sovereign nation.” Despite the provincial government''s warning that Internet gambling operations may be illegal, Jestrab says there is no question in the minds of the bands about whether they have the right to go ahead. “We have hired international, provincial, and federal lawyers to review the bylaws as well as all the documentation that''s necessary to province these services,” he says. “I imagine the province would not be 100 percent pleased, nor the federal government. But treaty rights are protected under treaties with the Crown of England.” “The province and Ottawa are still working through the complexities of regulating Internet gambling,” says Peter Glendinning, vice-president of licensing at the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority. Jestrab says that governments tend to oppose Internet casinos because they''re difficult to tax. He expects File Hills Telecom and Internet Inc. to net returns of US $25,000 to US $50,000 a month. |