Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma Sells Online Poker Venture to Monster

The Pokertribe.com story which broke a fortnight ago has taken a new twist, with the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma selling its online poker venture to the California-based Monster Products Worldwide for ‘an undisclosed sum’.

As reported on PokerTube, a recent decision by the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission to grant a licence to the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma – which would allow them to offer real money gambling to players in other countries from within the USA – was accompanied by a lawsuit by a previous incarnation of the same scheme – PokerTribes.com - led by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

That scheme fell through several years ago with Reggie Wassana, speaker of the tribal legislature stating:

“A lot of money was paid and nothing was ever received. Nothing became of it. It was $9.4 million for a website basically — there was no realization of profits and no actual working internet gaming.”

Now Monster’s affiliate, Monster Technology Group, said Wednesday that it had ‘purchased the online gaming assets of Miami-based Universal Entertainment Group’  - co-founded by Fred ‘Prince Fred’ Khalilian – ‘including software licensed to the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and its Isle of Man online gaming company’, according to Digitaltrends.com.

Iowa tribe chairman Bobby Walkup said in a statement this week:

"Collaboration with a company having the reach and impact of Monster is a perfect marriage that will help us bring legitimate online gaming to players and enthusiasts worldwide," adding: “It's the beginning of something truly 'Monstrous.'"

Of the Isle of Man licence he had stated:

“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.”

The deal was brokered by Khalilian, a Playboy entrepreneur with a murky past which includes a lifetime ban from telemarketing and a $4.2million FTC fine for an auto-warranty scam, as well as convictions for battery.

Khalilian was the man behind the failed PokerTribes.com affair which cost the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes a reputed $10million and was instrumental in the original Iowa tribe deal to produce the similarly-named PokerTribe.com.

Of this week’s Monster announcement he said: "I put the deal together, that's all. I thought it was a great idea and they looked into it and it was a perfect fit," claiming that he will not benefit financially from the sale.

According to the announcement, the Iowa Tribe Of Oklahoma will hold the gaming license to operate Pokertribe.com while Monster will hold the gaming vendor license for its IT work on the website.

Noel Lee, the Segway-riding CEO of Monster who was one of the main forces behind the Beats by Dre headphones sensation, said in a statement that he is looking forward to expanding Monster into online gaming.

“This corporate expansion into gaming is a natural fit with the Monster philosophy and demonstrates just what can be done with the Monster brand when it comes to creating excitement, mystery and anticipation of adventure.”