Oklahoma Tribes Ditch Fight Over Poker Site

A pair of Oklahoma tribes have ditched plans to pursue an online poker site. They had sued the federal government over the site, but that also appears to be over. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes had brokered a revenue-sharing deal with Oklahoma for a PokerTribes.com online poker site.

The federal government objected not to the online poker activity itself, but to the nature of the deal between the two parties. In other words, the feds felt that the tribe was getting a raw deal with the state. There was supposed to be revenue sharing between each party.

According to Tulsa World, “Incoming Governor Eddie Hamilton, whose official capacity is in dispute while the tribe struggles with a divided government, recently replaced several high-ranking casino personnel and an attorney general who were involved in PokerTribes.com…

He also directed attorney Richard Grellner to stop pursuing a lawsuit [on behalf of the tribes] seeking approval to operate the site. Grellner filed the lawsuit Dec. 26 in federal court in Oklahoma City against the U.S. Department of Interior.”

The Oklahoma tribes spent more than $9 million on the site. The plan was to offer online poker to players in other countries. Oklahoma does have casino gambling, but not online action. Right now, just Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have legal online gambling. This story originally appeared on the Card Player website.