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David Baines
Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
The concentration of online gambling activities on the Kahnawake Reserve in Quebec is getting quite frightening.
For years, Bodog, the online gambling firm run by part-time Vancouver resident Calvin Ayre, has run its business through servers owned and operated by Mohawk Internet Technologies, which is located on the reserve.
MIT services hundreds of gambling websites, and processes more than half the world's online gambling traffic.
Last September, Bodog announced it would licence its North American operations to the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, which is also located on the reserve.
On Monday, Ayre belatedly announced he had also transferred ownership of Bodog to the Morris Mohawk Group.
Morris Mohawk is headed by Alwyn Morris, who won two medals in kayaking in the 1984 Olympics and was made a member of the Order of Canada. He is now director of the Mohawk Council of Chiefs in Kahnawake.
"We could not have found a more perfect partner than Alwyn Morris and Morris Mohawk Gaming Group. Morris is a true Canadian hero," Ayre said in a release Monday.
Whether he's a hero or not depends on your point of view.
Morris, like his Mohawk brethren, is using the reserve as a safe haven for all sorts of activities that would be considered illegal elsewhere in Canada.
After the Oka debacle in 1990, federal and provincial authorities have been too scared to apply laws on the reserve that all other Canadians are subject to.
Transferring ownership to the Morris Mohawk group has provided Bodog with virtual immunity from prosecution. The firm can solicit billions of dollars in wagers without regard for regulation or taxation.
Your local Rotary club, meanwhile, has to procure a licence before it can hold something as benign as a charity raffle.
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发表于 2008-4-24 09:41
