Ioway Internet Gaming Enterprise Limited, an Isle of Man company operated by the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma has reportedly obtained a gaming license in the Isle of Man. Marking the first US tribal operator’s entrance into the United Kingdom’s online gaming market.

Less than two years after announcing its intention to operate an international gambling website from its tribal lands situated within the exterior borders of Oklahoma, on September 7, 2017, the tribe was reportedly issued an online gaming license by the IOM Gambling Supervision Commission, according to a press release.

Bobby Walkup, Chairman of the Iowa Tribe, reportedly said that obtaining the license in the Isle of Man was the final necessary step before it could exercise its right under the Oklahoma Tribal-State Gaming Compact to operate an online poker site known as PokerTribe.com, from its headquarters in Perkins, Oklahoma. According to a ruling by an arbitrator in November 2015, no federal or state laws would be violated if internet games covered under the compact were offered to players located outside the United States where it was legal.

The arbitration award was subsequently certified by a federal district court in Oklahoma City in April 2016.

While a specific launch date for PokerTribe.com has yet to be set by the tribe and its Isle of Man gaming company, Chairman Walkup reportedly said that sometime this fall the site will go live.

Walkup added that a major announcement regarding the sale of the software company jointly-owned by the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and Universal Entertainment Group to a company that was internationally recognized, would be forthcoming.

“We are in the final stages of the sale and have been working diligently with Universal Entertainment Group to finalize the transfer of the online gaming assets, which includes the software license agreement, to the company that has an internationally-known brand,” Walkup said. “This new relationship will be beneficial to the Tribe and the new software owner as PokerTribe.com enters the international online gaming market.”

Chairman Walkup further stated, “The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma is proud to be the first Native American tribe to secure an international online gaming license.”  He added, “The process has taken longer than we may have envisioned when we began this journey, but, because we are a Native American tribe and held to higher gaming legal and regulatory standards, we had to ensure that we met all these standards.”