The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma in collaboration with Universal Entertainment Group (UEG) it’s online software developer launched PokerTribe.com back in May 2016 and offered visitors a number of free to play games. The tribe had plans to launch real money online poker games from the 1st of August to residents in Oklahoma as well as online poker players across the world.
Online poker is currently legalized only in Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware but the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma succeeded in getting approval from the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma after a judge rule that the covered games proposed by the tribe fell under the Class iii Gaming Compact between the State of Oklahoma and the Iowa Tribe and was therefore not breaching Federal or State law.
The tribe recently announced that it will delay the launch of real money online poker games by another two and a half months as it is still working with foreign governments across the world to sort out regulations that will allow the company to offer real money games without any violations. The tribe expects to offer real money online games by October 15 and is currently working on partnering with a number of major banking companies including Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Discover and key European banking companies.
Pokertribe.com continues to offer free to play games such as Poker, Pull-Tabs and Bingo in the United States and plans to introduce a number of additional games when it launches its real money games. The online poker website is also offering a number of new bonuses to players who sign-up for a new account.
In a statement to the press, Bobby Walkup, Chairman of the Iowa Tribe said “We have completed each phase thoroughly and precisely. The final phase is the most important for a successful launch with the real money play, which is why we are rescheduling our launch date.”
The two and a half month delay is said to be essential in order for the tribe to be able to work through all the processes and regulations for each foreign country and obtain permission for online gaming licenses and approval for international merchant process banking. It is still not clear as to how the tribe plans to market its online poker offerings in international regulated markets which already have online poker websites.
The tribe also planned to launch online poker services to commercial jet passengers via its InSkyCasino website. These online gambling services were expected to go live on Jan 9, 2017 but unofficial reports suggest that this could also delayed.