All In: Online Poker is World's Biggest Gamel

(Work in Progress; comments welcome)...

In less than a decade, online poker has grown from a few thousand players in a few major urban centres to a global community of millions, and exploded into a billions-of-dollars-a-day internet exchange with round-the-clock action from everywhere in the world. Since poker hit TV with Chris Moneymaker’s World Series of Poker win in 2001, brick-and-mortar casinos have expanded from eight no-limit Holdem tables in 2001 to 8,000 today,[i] and online sites have grown phenomenally: The leading online site PokerStars has grown from several hundred thousand players to more than 25 million account holders. More people have played at PokerStars than live in Australia![ii]

The scene is dominated by kids in their late teens and twenties, fearless and tireless, some who play 8-12 hours every day, sometimes multi-tabling to play 16 or more tables simultaneously.

Poker Players Sharpen Skills and Build Social Networks

The poker phenomenon has led to a new brand of savvy, self-aware player. Many are schooled in one or more online poker forums (there are well over 1,000 – some with membership approaching 100,000). To many, poker is not a ‘game’ and they are not ‘gambling;’ rather it is a sport at which they can make informed and well-researched decisions that will make them money over time.

On an individual level, increasing numbers of academic studies show that poker builds players’ math skills, reasoning powers, psychological insight, and social interactions (including those with family; there are countless stories in the forums about people being taught by grandparents, or playing with family on Saturday nights).

Aboriginal Connections in Cyberspace

It has also brought a new era of wealth and tribulation to Aborginal peoples in the U.S. and Canada. Kahnawake, near Montreal, is home to thousands of internet poker sites. The Mohawks of Kahnawake are now world leaders in the online poker business, hosting most of the world’s sites, and owning several of the major players (UltimateBet, Absolute and Bodog).
Natives are increasingly participating in the global economy, and the knowledge economy. Building technological skills and is key to education, employment and self-sustainability. One of those means of participation is games (National Indian Gaming Association represents 186 nations in the US: http://www.indiangaming.org/). The Kahnawake Gaming Commission in the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake in Québec was established in 1996 to license and regulate online casinos and poker rooms. Existing somewhere between their semi-autonomous First Nations territorial status, and jurisdictional indecision regarding legislation and enforcement of online gaming (international, federal, provincial), the KGC has become a world leader in hosting and regulating poker sites – there are almost 1,000 sites hosted there today.http://www.kahnawake.com/gamingcommission/
Two of the most prominent of those, Absolute Poker and Ultmatebet, which recently suffered an insider cheating scandal, are owned by Chief Joe Norton. Kahnawake, a leader in the development of online gaming, and now a subject of international interest, and scrutiny, is a nexus for the issues of online gaming:http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/search.php?searchid=7847090 Golden Palace was prosecuted in Québec; Major sites have moved offshore to Malta, Aruba, Isle of Man, Cyprus and other locales.

Is Online Gaming a Red Road to Self-Determination or a Red Herring? Can we re-create the American Tribal gaming model in cyberspace as brick and mortar crumbles in the new economy?
The Net has increasing power over the future of groups such as First Nations divorced from the institutions and agencies of government; cyberspace in and of itself is an agent of change. “With a multimedia computer the Internet becomes a multimedia system, featuring sound and graphics and video…” It allows remote communities to communicate and access the latest information, it can support culture, and “our Nations will be able to speak more quickly and directly than ever before” on the Internet (Morrisson 1995). Cyberspace is crucial for the survival of Aboriginal peoples: “We missed the Industrial Revolution. We will not miss the Information Technology Revolution. Our citizens, and especially our youth, are ready to take full advantage of this revolution and the possibilities offered. I will strive to ensure that they have that opportunity” (Matthew Coon Come 2001): http://www.fnschools.ca/ ,http://www.cradleboard.org/
Natives must prioritize the adoption of IT to avoid falling deeper into the digital divide in Canada, and in cyberspace. As with the horse, Native peoples have to adopt this new technology, and move into this new space. It is another case of needing to adopt the White man’s ways, while maintaining Native traditions -- Two Worlds, and the Two-Row Wampum (Kahswhentha):http://www.reclamationinfo.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1633
Games as Networks

Games are some of the earliest ways that humans learn to interact with one another; they are a universal language. First Nations people have always been gamblers, from the peach stone game of the Iroquois to stick, bone and hand-drum games of the Ojibwe, western Cree, and west coast Kootenay and Gitskan peoples, and the horse racing (and betting) of plains Indians such as Blackfoot and Stoney.
Like these, poker is a game, which brings together gaming and game theory, much-respected niches in mathematics, economics, and social life.  Today, we have a tremendous, worldwide, language-no-barrier community brought together in cyberspace by gaming sites such as Poker Stars, Full Tilt, and Party Poker – names that now resonate in mainstream culture. Networks are growing around this activity.



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[i] Tommy Angelo

[ii] Twitter from PokerStars 22/7/09