Royalties for Electronic Gaming Devices in the works

09/20/2017

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) wishes to inform the community that Chief & Council have given a mandate to a working group for the purpose of beginning negotiations with proponents (Playground Poker and Poker Palace) of a proposal to operate Electronic Gaming Devices under license and regulation of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (“the Commission”).

More specifically, the working group will explore and negotiate terms and conditions of a Royalty Agreement (royalties to Kahnawà:ke) within the general context of the proposal. The royalties would be provided to the Commission and the MCK, on behalf of the community.

Please note that there is no formal agreement between the MCK and the proponents at this time; however, Chief & Council have already agreed in principle to support the potential arrangement.

The official mandate was given at yesterday’s Council Meeting, which includes the appointments of Ietsénhaienhs Gina Deer, MCK Executive Financial Officer Paul Rice, Jean Pommainville of MCK Legal Services and Financial Manager Onerahtókha Karlie Marquis as the Working Group.

The Executive Directive was supported by the eight (8) Chiefs present, with Carl Horn against.

“While I wasn’t able to attend yesterday’s meeting, I fully support the direction that the MCK is taking in this matter,” said Ietsénhaienhs Deer, who holds the Gaming Portfolio on behalf of the MCK. “There is a great opportunity to engage in new and potentially lucrative revenue streams for the community. The proponents are already regulated under the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and are willing to abide by any and all regulations that the Commission sees fit to enact.”

The Commission was directed by the MCK to begin exploring and developing regulations concerning Electronic Gaming Devices this spring.

“There needs to be some community engagement on this,” Ietsénhaienhs Deer added. “We made commitments to consult on this matter but things have moved so quickly that our communications plan wasn’t finalized. Therefore we’ll accelerate that process; we’ll host a kiosk at the Services Complex in early October. We’ll announce the dates shortly.”

“Cooperation with the private sector is not a new concept,” she concluded. “Our job is to adapt a model that will work for the benefit of as many Kahnawa’kehrò:non as possible.”