Judge allows tribe to run PokerTribe.com_1

The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma has received judicial approval to launch and run PokerTribe.com, an International gambling website. Judge David L Russell commented that there weren’t any “issues of material fact” that affected the final decision in tribe’s favor.

The ruling comes a month after the state said it won’t interfere with the tribe’s plans to start a website that will cater to customers outside US territory. Now, the Iowa Tribe, which has only 800 enrolled members, is planning to start the PokerTribe.com platform sometime this year. Additionally, there may even be similar sites launched by other tribes, since the judge’s decision has paved the way for them to do so.

As was reported by Law360, the state was sued by the tribe last year after Oklahoma questioned whether the gaming site was outside the bounds of the gaming compact between the Iowans and the state. In order to resolve the problem, Oklahoma hired an arbitrator whose conclusion was that the tribe didn’t violate the compact or other relevant laws. However, the arbitrator pointed out that the games have to be “controlled and operated by a computer server” located on lands that belong to the tribe.

Once this conclusion was published, the Iowa Tribe required a court judgement to certify the decision by the arbitrator, while state officials gave green light for such a ruling to be made; according to them, there wasn’t any “good cause” to postpone giving the tribe the necessary “stamp of approval.”

The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma currently operates a total of three gaming properties within the state’s borders, out of which the best-established one is the Cimarron Casino in Perkins.