Far from the legendary kitsch of the world's gambling capital of Las Vegas, with its countless slot machines, roulette wheels and blackjack tables, a serene Indian reservation in eastern Canada has turned online betting into big business.
The Kahnawake reservation near Montreal is home to 20 of the 100 most frequented online casinos, according to a recent study by brokerage firm Desjardins Securities, making the indigenous group host to the largest number of popular gambling websites in the world, beating rival Britain.
The semi-autonomous Mohawk territory is "ideal for establishing online casino operations" because of its "geographic proximity to the North American market, as well as the relative political stability," wrote a Desjardins analyst.
Christiansen Capital Advisors estimates that online casinos generated up to 7.5 billion US dollars in 2004 and that revenues could reach as much as 18.4 billion US dollars by 2010.
Various groups compete using gimmicks to attract players eager to risk substantial wagers to make fast, easy money. However, attracting gamblers from the United States, the biggest market for online gambling, can be troublesome, because advertising for casinos, bingo or online betting, while not explicitly illegal, has been halted by the Department of Justice.
Golden Palace, the world's second-largest online casino, based on the Kahnawake reservation, has gotten around the agency's crackdown by spending large sums on bizarre objects that have garnered it much media attention.
The casino bought Pope Benedict XVI's Volkswagen for over 200,000 US dollars, pop star Britney Spears's pregnancy test for close to 5,000 US dollars and a grilled cheese sandwich blessed with the likeness of the Virgin Mary for a mere 28,000 greenbacks.
Anyone curious enough to search the Internet for more information about these unusual purchases quickly finds themselves directed to the casino's website, where pop-up ads hold out the prospect of big cash payouts. Clients seduced by the glitter and sparkle of the ads can then buy electronic chips with a credit card and play.
The only hiccup, according to another Desjardins study, is that Canadian officials claim these activities violate the country's criminal code, as only provincial governments have the right to license and oversee gaming activities.
The Kahnawake band does not hold any such permits but has created its own gaming commission and instituted its own standards and protocols for Internet gambling.
Band members claim the Canadian constitution recognizes their "ancient right" to operate casinos. The document does not refer to gambling specifically, but if the Mohawks can prove in court that commercial gaming was part of the first nations' cultural tradition when the first European settlers arrived in Canada, the government would be forced to respect their current gambling businesses as an extention of that.
"Kahnawake's jurisdiction in this area is not subject to negotiation or compromise," Grand Chief Michael Ahrihron Delisle Junior said in a statement, responding to prosecution threats.
"The Mohawks will have to prove that during pre-colonial times they not only gambled to kill time during the long winters, but that they were doing it on a commercial basis that included non-tribal members," Ghislain Otis, an expert on indigenous people's rights at Laval University in Quebec City, told AFP.
Asked about the government's inaction vis-a-vis the band's alleged illegal venture, Otis said the current situation between officials and indigenous groups in Canada is "politically charged."
"It's often a waiting game when it comes to relations between aboriginals and the government," he said. "The government is trying to show that it can be flexible."