U.S Tribal Casinos Forge Ahead Wager Online

Nevada, Atlantis Internet Group Corporation announced that it has signed a licensing agreement with Cake Gaming NV to enabling tribal casinos in more than 30 states to wager at poker online, legally and with immediate effect. Cake is one of the biggest and fastest growing poker networks in the world; it supplies poker software to a number of legal international gaming jurisdictions. Now, backed by the legal opinion of the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) for its patent pending “Casino Gateway Network” (CGN), ATIG is set to establish a private gaming network on Indian Lands. This revolutionary technology will enable tribal casinos to offer a form of Internet poker across state lines.

Currently online gambling revenues generated on a global scale stands at $30 billion excluding the U.S. market.  Market researchers have indicated that before the U.S. Congress passed the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), two-thirds of the worldwide Internet gaming revenue came from the U.S. That means billions of Internet gaming revenue dollars within the U.S. market still remain untapped. While the UIGEA put an end to Internet gambling in the U.S., it provided certain exceptions for Indian Casinos and Intertribal Internet gaming and states that pass Intrastate Internet gaming legislation.

ATIG will now be the only poker network operating in more than one state at a time. This also allows tribes to aide their respective communities which have been hard hit by the sagging economy. “Our Indian version of the CGN, called the ‘Tribal Gaming Network’ (‘TGN’) offers an immediate and legal solution to Indian casinos nationwide, providing the largest online poker network in the U.S. This is good news for ATIG and Cake, and will become an immediate economical boost for Tribes and states facing deficits nationwide,” said Donald L. Bailey, CEO of ATIG.

There is a growing movement in the U.S. and Europe to relax the rules on Internet gambling so that taxes on online gaming might bolster revenue and reduce budget shortfalls. Last month the Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives approved a Bill that would overturn the 2006 UIGEA law. Supporters reckon online gaming generate as much as $42 billion in U.S. tax revenue within the next decade. ATIG’s CGN System is designed for traditional commercial casinos as well and can be easily implemented when, and if, pending state Intrastate Internet Gaming legislation is passed.

ATIG introduced its technology to the NIGC, the federal agency that co-regulates all Indian Casinos, and in September 2009 received a favourable opinion allowing it to operate its network in all Indian Casinos nationwide. The TGN System allows players to play on a private gaming network, i.e., “Wide Area Progressive” (WAP), Class III, Class II and online games on Indian lands. The NIGC Opinion went on to state that according to its Bulletin on the UIGEA, ATIG’s network works like a traditional WAP and, therefore, it is not considered as being illegal Internet