However, despite compelling legal and equitable reasons to do so, the 1985 agreement did not consider a role for Indigenous peoples in Canada’s gaming industry. As a result, since 1985, an Indigenous community that wants to participate in Canada’s gaming industry has two choices: ask a provincial government to voluntarily share its gaming revenues and responsibilities or exercise the Indigenous community’s inherent jurisdiction and establish its own gaming industry. Most Indigenous communities in Canada have been successful in entering into agreements with the provinces in which they are located to share gaming revenues. As each agreement is unique to a particular province and the Indigenous peoples in that province, it has therefore resulted in an uneven patchwork across Canada. Notably, Québec is the only province that has consistently refused to enter into an agreement to share its gaming revenues with Indigenous peoples. Kahnawà:ke is one of the few Indigenous communities that decided to build a gaming jurisdiction on the strength of its own Indigenous jurisdiction. In fact, given that it is located within the province of Québec, Kahnawà:ke had no alternative available to it. In 1996, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (the ‘MCK’) enacted the Kahnawà:ke Gaming Law, which, among other things, established and empowered the Kahnawà:ke Gaming Commission KGC. In 1999, the KGC enacted its ‘Regulations concerning Interactive Gaming’ and began licensing and regulating third-party online gaming operators. All operators licensed by the KGC were (and are) required to be hosted at MIT, an ISP/ DC located within Kahnawà:ke. MIT is owned by the MCK and managed by Continent 8 Technologies plc. Kahnawà:ke’s online gaming industry grew rapidly. In 2005, a report issued by Desjardins Securities estimated that “Over one fifth of the top 500 online casinos have their sites based in this jurisdiction”. In and around 2007, four land-based poker rooms opened in Kahnawà:ke, each licensed THOUGHT LEADER 73 The 1985 agreement was a pivotal moment for Canada’s Indigenous peoples and their role in the gaming industry.
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