A joint venture between the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and Universal Entertainment Group, PokerTribes.com was launched in June 2012. Originally billed as a free social networking site, PokerTribes and its corresponding mobile applications included explicit references to financial transactions, including a “Buy credits” button on its home page and content in its terms of service page about refunds for inactive accounts.

 

EL RENO, Okla. – Although two governments still claim to be the legitimate authority of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, the two new governors are in agreement over one thing: the tribes are getting out of online gaming. 

At a special Tribal Council meeting Saturday at Redlands Community College, more than 60 Cheyenne and Arapaho citizens voted to authorize the Darrell Flyingman administration to bring in third-party contractors to investigate the tribes’ expenses associated with PokerTribes.com and attempt to recover the $9.5 million in tribal funds spent on the website. The council also gave Flyingman’s administration permission to file charges against the individuals involved in the purchase and administration of the website if necessary.

The other claimant government, led by Rollin “Eddie” Hamilton and Cornell Sankey, has said it will not recognize Saturday’s council meeting or its results as legitimate. Signed public notices to that effect were posted online and at the tribes’ complex in Concho, Okla.

In an open letter published in the Feb. 1 edition of the tribes’ newspaper, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Tribune, Hamilton made known the decision to sever ties with the site. As of Sunday morning, PokerTribes.com still has a “Coming Soon” banner and is labeled as an enterprise of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

The Hamilton/Sankey administration also announced earlier this month that it is dropping the tribes’ lawsuit against the Department of the Interior to get PokerTribes.com off of the ground. Filed in December in the Western District of Oklahoma, the lawsuit is still listed as active in the court’s online filing system, but does not have any hearings scheduled.

A joint venture between the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and Universal Entertainment Group, PokerTribes.com was launched in June 2012. Originally billed as a free social networking site, PokerTribes and its corresponding mobile applications included explicit references to financial transactions, including a “Buy credits” button on its home page and content in its terms of service page about refunds for inactive accounts.

The site’s official public launch was blocked last year in part due to questions of whether it violated the tribes’ gaming compact with the state of Oklahoma, prompting former governor Janice Prairie Chief-Boswell to sign an amended gaming agreement with the state of Oklahoma that would grant the state a portion of the proceeds if the site only allowed financial transactions with international patrons. However, the DOI refused to recognize the new gaming compact, thus prompting the tribes’ lawsuit.

Universal Entertainment Group did not respond to requests for comment.