PokerTribe misses Deadline: Still No Online Poker for Real Money

Waiting for PokerTribe.com to launch a real money online poker site is kind of like waiting for Apple to introduce the iPad Pro 2. We were teased with a first edition (the free play site) in May, and eagerly anticipated the real money launch in August. When that didn’t happen, October 15^th was promised. But there’s still no option to play online poker for real money.In Apple’s defense, the mobile tech giant hasn’t once vowed to bring a next-gen iPad Pro to market on any specific date or time frame. Only rumors and speculations contribute to that. But in PokerTribe’s case, we were professed a real money launch – not once, but twice – and it still hasn’t happened.

PokerTribe’s Failure To Launch

PokerTribe is a digital gaming website owned by the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, and powered by software from Florida-based Universal Entertainment Group. The tribe has asserted that, as a sovereign nation, it has every right to launch a real money online poker product in the US, although it appears it will only cater to international players, along with locals who are physically present on the tribe’s reservation, about 50 miles northeast of Oklahoma City.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear anyone will be playing online poker for real money on this site for some time to come – if ever.

The May soft-launch came with a message that real money online poker and casino games will go live in August 2016. That ship sailed right on by, with barely a hint of wind to mark its passing. The launch notice was then replaced with a much more specific date, promising to launch the real money poker site on (or before) October 15, 2016.

I don’t know how you spent that Saturday, but I hope it wasn’t staring at the PokerTribe main page, waiting for a deposit option to magically appear. Because that never happened. Instead, the launch date notice was altered to its most vague reference yet:

“Winter of 2016/17”

Don’t Mark Your Calendars…

Unfortunately, the chances of PokerTribe.com ever going live with a real money online poker or casino product are pretty slim. The Iowa Tribe isn’t the first to contract UEG to build and manage its back-end product, and while it’s not necessarily UEG’s fault that the site is getting nowhere fast, chances are we’ll only see a repeat of the previous attempt.

PokerTribe was originally launched in 2012 by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, who poured over $9 million into their agreement with UEG to get the website up and running for free play, with real money games planned for the future. That was before the Oklahoma tribes got slapped with federal objections.

Those tribes finally backed out, deciding it wasn’t worth it to invest in something that would probably never be deemed recognizably legal anyway. Then the Iowa Tribe stepped in and took over payments to UEG to continue the process.

Now here we are, 4 years later, and PokerTribe still can’t offer online poker for real money.

Iowa Tribe Not Giving Up Yet

Despite the dour appearance of the situation, the Iowa Tribe doesn’t appear to be giving up anytime soon. Along with the ambiguous new ‘Winter of 2016/17‘ sales pitch, the tribe explained the reason for this latest delay:

“The Iowa Tribe Government is in process of getting all of their international gaming licenses & successfully doing so.”

I suppose we’ll see just how successful their international licensing efforts are come Spring 2017.