If you are one of our readers that has never heard of Kahnawake then there is absolutely no need to worry, you are almost certainly not alone. The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory is a Mohawk reserve on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec and has actually done more to legitimise online casino gaming in Canada than many people give it credit for.
The area itself is comparatively tiny, covering just over 48 square kilometres and boasting a meagre population of around 8,000 mostly English speaking residents. However, among that land and those people is the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which made use of the traditional Kahnawake Gaming Law in 1996 to set itself up as an international regulatory body. The law itself is one of several that the people of the area hold as their own right, totally separate from Canadian national laws and independent of any legal challenges. Indeed, in spite of some controversy, there has never been and formal legal challenge to Kahnawake’s right to act as a gaming commission.
In technical terms, the gaming commission operates from Mohawk Internet Technologies, a dedicated data centre much the same as those found around the world. With controversy ongoing as regards to hosting gambling sites in the US, it is widely considered to be the central hub of electronic online gambling in the whole of North America.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission offers licences to operators in much the same way as some of the bigger names around the world, such as the Lotteries and Gaming Authority of Malta. They offer many similar technological support systems and undertake thorough audits to verify the integrity of all licence holders. Indeed, some of the biggest names in the industry hold such licences, ones that our readers will undoubtedly have heard of such as All Slots Casino. It is absolutely no coincidence that All Slots is right at the very top of our list of recommended online casinos for Canadian players as they offer an all-round excellent service. It may nonetheless come as something of a surprise that they are licenced right here in Canada.
Many industry experts believe that the location of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission in Canada has gone a long way to making the nation’s laws around online gambling more in line with those that embrace the pastime, such as the UK, and far ahead of the likes of the US where it is banned outright in some states. By implementing their licencing system in the early days of casino gaming, they brought the industry to local attention and proved the viability of the genre irrespective of the opinions of politicians.
While some of the larger US casino brands are looking to expand online, they are forced to do so in unfamiliar territory. FoxWoods, for example, is the largest land based casino in Connecticut and a huge brand in its own right. However, their online service is only available to players in Europe. All Slots Casino, on the other hand, is physically located in Canada on the Kahnawake reserve – it is a term of all licences that casinos must physically base their data operations at the local data centre. From that base, it has gone on to become one of the most highly respected online casino brands not only in Canada but across the world.
