GAMING AMERICA | TRIBAL GAMING
STRENGTH IN UNITY As regulated gaming becomes a reality in parts of Canada, it has not been a completely smooth ride. Gaming America had the chance to speak to Chief Mike Delisle of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, to learn more about how Indigenous peoples are staking a claim for themselves in this evolving landscape.
In February 2022, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke (MCK) and the Six Nations of the Grand River (SNGR) – the former located in Quebec and the latter in Ontario – took an unprecedented move among Indigenous communities in Canada, by entering into an agreement of mutual cooperation on gaming. This was an effort to counter a power play by the Ontario Government, to gain control of the iGaming licensing process in the province. Gaming America had the chance to speak to Chief Mike Delisle of the MCK to learn more about the matter.
What is the nature of the dispute between, on the one side, the MCK and the SNGR and, on the other side, the Government of Ontario? The story starts about two years ago when we learned through our political 40 | GAMINGAMERICA
connections on the federal government side that they were looking to introduce a private members’ bill; which would change and amend the criminal code, allowing the province of Ontario to be able to conduct and manage single-game betting and online gaming for the province. This would exclude the indigenous population from the right to oversee their gaming endeavors. Going back, two years ago we started discussion with David Lametti, who was the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. Those discussions have been few and far between since he visited us in March of 2019. We are now broaching the third year in terms of our discussion, or lack thereof, with Mr Lametti’s office. From there, it progressed. We tried to form discussions with the Government of Ontario, the Minister of Finance, of Indian Affairs (as it’s called here
in Canada). There was not much success. The private members’ bill became a government-sponsored bill and then got royal assent shortly after the most recent election. So, it’s law now and they’ve amended the criminal code. This has basically eliminated the avenue for us as indigenous people to have a carveout, which is what we asked for. We want to be able to continue regulating online and land-based gaming, yet every time a dialogue is attempted with the Government, the talks always stall. They are always sending letters of good intentions to re-open talks but they never follow up on these. And meanwhile, 4 April is still the start date for iGaming to go live in Ontario under the new rules. So what does that tell us? We’ve had no interaction with them since October. Lametti is not returning our calls. We have
