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The Kahnawake Gaming Commission was established in June of 1996 in order to "regulate and control gaming, and gaming related activities, conducted within and from the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake in accordance with the highest principles of honesty and integrity," or so their website says. It's not integrity that springs to mind when I get spam from GoldenPalace (an online casino hosted on their servers) or when I see GoldenPalace naked people at sporting events. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission seem to regulate their members more by the, do as you want and we'll just ignore it, rule of thumb. This typically doesn't hold well for their reputation. Looking at their website makes you wonder how seriously they take themselves. The copyright is for 2002 and the latest news story is dated 28 November 2003. Perhaps their marketing department has been on sick leave or something. All of this together is actually ok. Most of their casinos are MicroGaming and eCOGRA approved, so they don't have to be so spectacular on the regulation uptake. They've been lucky with the online casinos that have chosen them. However, as they do have a reputation for being rather blasé and liaise-faire about their reputation I was surprised to find out that they are considering going public. According to The Gazette (www.canada.com) the "Mohawks of Kahnawake are considering participating in a London share offering that would raise money for an international network of computer centres [centers to those who know how to spell] to serve the online gambling industry and other e-businesses." They wish to buy a 40 percent stake in an Isle of Man company, Continent 8 Technologies PLC, which is looking to do an IPO on London Stock Exchange's junior AIM market. Continent 8 Technologies PLC wants to join with Mohawk Internet Technologies (owned by the Kahnawake) with the purpose of offering their servers international customers as part of a larger "grid" of data centers. From there they plan to raise money so that they can develop more data centers, including a second center on the Kahnawake reserve, others on Singapore, the Isle of Man, and elsewhere. This would make the Mohawks an international player in servicing online gambling and other e-commerce businesses. According to Michael Tobin, the Continent 8 chief executive, "There's a real data-centre shortage, so it's a good business to get into right now. We're a 21st-century utility company and we need capital to grow." Tobin was a long-time consultant to MIT. It's his opinion that, "The Mohawks would literally be a part, through their economic development commission, of an international publicly traded company. And we think that's pretty interesting." He added "If the Mohawks don't participate, they've missed a great opportunity." I wanted to learn more about Continent 8 so I Googled them and came up with nothing. There were lots of geography sites, some sports stuff, and some things I couldn't recognize, but no company site. Then I went to the obvious and tried www.continent8.com. They have a website, but it gives even less information than the Kahnawake site. There site is simply a page which states "Continent 8 Technologies One world. Virtually Come back soon and find out more about us." Right. I guess everything that's known about these two companies was given by their PR company to The Gazette directly. Every other article printed on this subject is a copy of that article (at least of the ones I've seen so far). There's a question about whether the Kahnawake residents could legally invest in their own company. The reason is that the Kahnawake council has one essential condition before the IPO will be approved, and that is an allotment of company shares for purchase by ordinary members of the community. Michael Delisle, the Securities regulators may not agree with them. However, there may not be a problem as the stock isn't being offered to Canadians, only the Mohawks. John (Bud) Morris, chief executive officer of the development commission states that the details of the Mohawk stock options are an issue. "We're working on that issue and that's a little problematic at this stage because of Quebec securities law. We're not sure how we're going to make an accommodation for community members to invest in the initial public offering. It hasn't been figured out yet." Tobin would like to have an IPO of the combined companies within 6 months. However, he failed to mention the amount that they hoped to raise with this IPO. My guess is that they haven't figured out that exact sum yet. Michael Delisle, the All of this would be rather mundane information if it wasn't for the interesting twist where the Canadian federal and provincial governments state that only the provinces and territories can operate gambling ventures. The Mohawks ignore this completely and declare that they have jurisdiction over gambling. While the Surete du Quebec has yet to make any moves against the Mohawks or MIT at this time. They do state regularly that they are investigating them however. Why does all of this give me the image of Duddly DoLittle in a Mounties uniform sitting on a horse watching the world go by? As Dr. Phil says "Past behavior predicts future behavior." So there is little chance that the Surete du Quebec will do something against the Mohawks as they have done nothing for years now already. Grand Chief Delisle agrees "This is a real step in terms of internal growth and development. If they [the Surete du Quebec] were to do something now after seven years, going on eight, it would be a real sign that Mohawks, and natives in general across Canada, are only allowed to prosper to a certain degree." After all of that there's a kicker, "Tobin emphasized that the deal with the Mohawks has yet to be finalized and Continental 8 might end up choosing private financing over an IPO." Posted on: May 14, 2006
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