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Joe Norton and the Kahnawake are well known in the online casino industry, but the story of how the group came to control a huge portion of an $18 billion industry is very unlikely.

As a young man in his twenties there were no online casinos in extant for Joe Norton to get involved with.  He would employment as an ironworker in New York City; he even worked on the construction of the World Trade Center towers.  It was not until the age of 28 that Norton was voted onto the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake.  The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake is the governing body for the 8,000 member tribe positioned on the outskirts of Montreal.  Norton was appointed grand chief only two years later.

Over the more than twenty year period that Norton held the position of grand chief, the Kahnawake experience success beyond most imaginations.  When Norton started as grand chief the tribe made most of their money on cigarette sales and handouts from the federal government.

An early push from Norton in the mid 1990s for the tribe to open a land based casino was shot down.  Determined and clearly visionary, the focus was shifted to the growing industry of online casinos.  When the Kahnawake decided to become a licensing authority for online casinos and Internet gambling, they had several factors working toward their favor.

Online casinos are considered illegal in Canada, but the Kahnawake are considered a sovereign nation and can operate independent of the restrictions of federal laws.  Another benefit at the time was their proximity to the incredibly lucrative Untied States online gambling market, at the time the world’s largest market for online casinos. 

The last factor was the major broadband pipeline conveniently running near the 35,000 reservation.  The pipeline has the capability of handing millions of bet and transactions.  All of these elements combined to create one of the most influential bodies in online casinos.

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