Bill 74 in Quebec just passed which effectively monopolized internet gaming within the province. This maybe a part of a start of a truce b/t the government and the KGC so that the KGC can start hosting businesses to serve Quebec residents.
From this VICE article:
Quote:
Deer says the government doesn't seem to realize the financial impact the implementation of this law would have for community, a loss she said would be in the millions of dollars.
"To us, it's a direct impact, and the government doesn't seem to realize that. They say they created this law to ensure their citizens are protected from unregulated and offshore gaming activity, but we don't even fall in that category. We are not offshore, we are not unregulated," Deer said. "Why isn't there accomodation for us and our licensees?"
Deer says this program falls under Mohawk jurisdiction and is thus a question of independence. "We have a full history dating back before pre-contact that we've conducted gaming not just for entertainment but wager purposes, so it's not like it's an activity we hadn't been doing pre-contact," Deer said. " For us it's very disheartening to see these sort of laws being created and no consultation or no accommodations for First Nations—especially Kahnawake—when they know how heavily we are involved in the industry."
For now, the Kahnawake Mohawk Council is favouring political solutions rather than legal recourses, and Deer said Grand Chief Joe Norton has reached out to the Quebec government to schedule a meeting. She said other organizations have also contacted the Council to express solidarity or to discuss possible alliances.
Those "alliances" also involve telecomms, who are tilted that they have to be the ones to block and shuttle non-Quebec websites.
Quote:
Quebec’s courts aren’t the only place where Bill 74 is facing a challenge. This month, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre — a consumer advocacy charity —filed an application with the CRTC in objection to the law, arguing it would lead to rising costs for consumers who would be called upon to subsidize the new infrastructure ISPs will need to build to block web content on a provincial basis.
The main complaint of those who came up with Bill 74 wasn't that non-state sites existed and was taking business from state-run sites and therefore needed to be banned; it was that they were doing so
without paying taxes on their profits. Those within the legislature of the Quebec government have stated a desire of having competitive gaming market; building a "Dutch-style" tax framework is simply not a good look politically for various reasons (jobs+competition, net neutrality, etc) and its a pain in the ass to implement (unless you live in China or North Korea). But they felt they had to pass the law because all of these non-state actors where taking millions, around $200m CAD each year away in tax revenue, from the province.
So, what I think this is: it's alot like Party Poker when they exited the US market back in 2006 (along with paying a fine). They complied with the government instead of rolling the dice and continue to serve (and profit wildly) in illegal markets, so that when the eventual legal frameworks where in place for legal online poker in the states, that this would be remembered and they would get a head start on re-entering the scene legally. This paid off for Party, as they were one of the first legal sites in NJ when they passed their law a few years back.
Just like Amaya has been playing nice PR and exited the Quebec market the minute Bill 74 was being drafted, so that when eventually Quebec's State protectionist law gets chipped away at, and private sites are allowed back into the market....they would get that same preferential treatment.....same here with the KGC. Amaya and PS now all too well the setbacks of being a "bad player" are, as example in the CA legislature.
Those within the KGC have been bitching publicly that Bill 74 would cost their territories million in revenue and jobs. The Canadian Government as a whole has been getting shit on because of their treatment of those within the First Nations, whether it comes to job creation, education, and police brutality.
So, and this is my theory, the Quebec govt (along with the NJ DOJ, who I am sure they are in contact with) made the starting of a process where they can go to the KGC and say, "Hey, we agree that we want those jobs and tax revenue from those businesses and labor to stay in your territory. But you guys are pissing off the American authorities by offering online betting to Americans illegally. If you stop that, we'll recognize this as a "good player clause" and we can restart an on-boarding process to get you folks back into the Canadian market, legally, once we re-write the tax framework within the QC territory."
