Casino News

Canadian tribe could secure online gambling permit

2007-02-13 16:13:06

The Alexander First Nation could be permitted to run an online casino if it can prove that gambling was an ancestral activity, it has been suggested.

The tribe had looked to be heading for a showdown with the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC) after it began to offer licenses for online poker and casinos, despite not yet beginning operations.

But officials are adamant that anything deemed to be outside the law will not go ahead.

"Being illegal - we will take every action to ensure that it doesn't happen in Alberta," said Solicitor General Fred Lindsay, minister responsible for the AGLC, speaking to the Edmonton Journal.

However, the paper also reports that lawyers believe there to be a small chance that older rulings could prove to be in the tribe's favour.

"If the facts exist to demonstrate that a rudimentary - very rudimentary - form of gambling exists, be it in the form of stones and sticks or beads or whatever the case may be, the law says that if they've got the facts, this is the law, they have to follow it," said Moe Lipton, a law professor at the University of Alberta.


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