Pulse of Poker: Canada

By Aaron Angerman

All seems well for the game of poker in Canada. The country's top professional players are occupying the felt on the most popular poker programs on television. Members of Canada's young poker crowd picked up big scores in the later events on the European Poker Tour. The country also played host to some big time tournaments, including an annual stop on the World Poker Tour, and is preparing to kick off the WPT Canada in early May.

All of the afore mentioned aspects paint a picture of accomplishment at the tables, but the country's ties to the online gaming industry are raising questions away from it. While players like Daniel Negreanu, Evelyn Ng, Brad Booth and Gavin Smith continue to provide the faces of Canadian poker, it's the small Mohawk territory of Kahnawake, not the star professionals, which has quietly turned Canada into one of the most powerful online gaming countries in the world.

The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory sits just off the St. Lawrence River, across the water from the city of Montreal. While the reserve may be home to only 7,000 residents, the territory is also home to the online gaming superpower Mohawk Internet Technologies (MIT), which hosts more than 400 poker and gambling sites, which is more than 60 percent of the total world market.

The traditional reservation operates under tribal law, rather than being ruled by the Canadian Government. This exclusion has made it possible for the sovereign nation to become the only North American power in the online gaming host market. The three-member Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) had granted 443 gaming permits as of November of 2007, including permits to Golden Palace, Titan Poker, Ultimate Bet, new WSOP sponsor Everest Poker and the now infamous Absolute Poker.

Absolute Poker's "POTRIPPER" scandal saw current and former company members abusing a "super-user" account, which allowed players access to all of the hole cards at the table. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were taken from the hands of unsuspecting AP patrons, oblivious to the powers held by "POTRIPPER", or any of the half-dozen other screen names which garnered suspicion. Former Absolute employee Allen Grimard (now AJ Green) and AP founder Scott Tom are thought to be behind the scandal, which cost AP more than $1 million in fines, fees and deposits. The site is also subject to audits conducting by the KGC for the next couple years.

While GoldenPalace.com preceded the AP scandal by making headlines in 2007 for having their offices raided across the river in Montreal, Kahnawake walked a straight line, avoiding any portion of the $2 million fine handed down to the parent company of Golden Palace, Cyber World Group, which operates out of Kahnawake. According to the Canadian Government, this was just the first step in an online gaming crackdown. A concern is that this territory, whose native rights are protected in the Canadian constitution, also has a history of violence when it comes to dealing with the rights of the reservation.

The town of Oka, Quebec spent the early part of 1990 putting the finishing touches on some golf course expansion. When the Mohawks got word that this construction would invade a burial ground and a sacred grove of pine trees, 1990 turned into the year of the "Oka Crisis". A standoff developed at the Mercier Bridge, which escalated to gunfire, military action and death. The crisis was ultimately resolved, but the outcome of the situation must loom large in any decision regarding the Kahnawake people, their land and their rights.

The Canadian Government knows that it is walking a fine line, balancing their ideals for Canadian gaming law with traditional Mohawk Indian rights. But is a Canadian version of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in the works?

"Following recent concerns surrounding Internet gambling in Canada, the Minister of Justice [Rob Nicholson] has asked his officials to examine whether the enforcement of the Criminal Code provisions could be assisted with other measures," said Genevieve Breton, Nicholson's director of communications.

What are these other measures? It has been hinted that the Canadian Government will look into the blocking of financial transactions to these gaming sites, which is exactly what the creators of the UIGEA set out to accomplish. Choke the deposit and withdrawal methods enough and maybe, you'll run them out of town. This has been proven to be ineffective in the United States, which raises questions as to why anything similar to the UIGEA would work on a constitutionally protected state.
What will happen if the Canadian Government implements a UIGEA-like plan? How will the Kahnawake residents react? Will gaming sites decided to take their business to places like Antigua, Gibraltar or Malta? Or will it be business as usual, with little changed, much like the situation in the U.S.? Other native groups, such as the Alexander First Nation in Alberta, have already said they plan to emulate Kahnawake. What then?

While questions surround the Kahnawake situation, the brick and mortar branch of Canadian poker is thriving. The WPT North American Poker Classic stop in Niagara Falls has been so successful that WPTE has created the WPT Canada, with the first of four new stops kicking off May 5th at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, British Columbia.

Canadian flags were flying at the Rio, even after Mississauga native Tuan Lam fell one spot short of a Main Event title at the 2007 WSOP. Michael "Timex" McDonald recently became the youngest EPT champion after capturing the crown at the German Open at age 18. Glen Chorny traveled from Ontario to Monte Carlo to play in the biggest event ever held outside of Las Vegas. Chorny would return home with $3.35 million and the EPT Grand Final championship. With Negreanu, Smith and Booth bellied up to tables on NBC, ESPN and GSN, Canadian players are receiving plenty of air time. McDonald and Chorny wins will only lead to more Canucks at online tables. The market for poker is obviously there. The question remains; will the government work to eliminate or regulate online gaming? If the government shies away from the latter, will the country be able to handle the repercussions presented by an angry Kahnawake tribe and an absent presence in the online gaming world.

To say that the Absolute Poker and Golden Palace scandals left a black eye on the Kahnawake gaming situation would be an understatement. To this day, the legality of Kahnawake issuing online gambling licenses has yet to be contested in a courtroom. Until that day, the state of poker in Canada will remain a question mark.

Questions or comments on this article? Click here to send a letter to the editors

CANADA	CHINA	RUSSIA	ENGLAND	AUSTRALIA

Aaron Angerman is Content Manager for PokerPages.com. Raised in small town Alaska, the self proclaimed 'sports fanatic' had dreams of being a sports writer. After moving to Las Vegas in 2000, he rekindled a childhood love for poker. Grinding it out in card rooms and on the virtual felt helped Aaron to fund his schooling, eventually earning him a journalism degree from UNLV. After a couple short stints in tournament reporting, Aaron realized the poker world was the place for him.