AP, rigged, etc. #8981.4 - the plot thickens

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I admit I haven't followed everything this weekend. But doesn't it seem more likely to you that Joe Norton owns AP/UB in name only? After the UIGEA and Neteller arrests, anyone with exposure owning a poker site has to be scared crapless. Except for an untouchable Mohawk Indian with a license from Canada.

So some sort of backroom deal is worked out to put Joe Norton's name on it. But just by common sense I'd be really surprised if a single entity from an Indian nation had the means and especially the motivation to purchase something as large as AP/UB outright.

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The gambling license fees paid to KGC are more than ten million dollars a year. The charges for a thousand gambling sites running servers has to be more than that. In addition, many other businesses run servers there - banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms etc. because the internet spine runs right under the reservation, along the river separating the US from Canada. More than a thousand workers from outside the reservation go into the reservation to work there. I vaguely recall reading that the server business makes a profit of more than twenty million dollars a year. In addition, Mr Norton has an interest in a firm selling cigarettes which has possibly sold a billion dollars of the things. Again, Canada and the US have high taxes on cigarettes, giving the Mohawks an edge. The German army recently bought $8.5 million dollars worth of cigarettes from them, for instance. In addition, Mr Norton should be willing to pay more for the firm than other buyers would because he probably owns the server farm, meaning his costs for that part of running the business are much lower than the cost for other possible purchasers. So I think it's very possible that he is a real owner, putting down tens of millions, and a note for the rest, given to buyers very anxious to make a sale if they ever want to go back home to the US again. But maybe you're right, maybe he's just a nominee for the old owners, put their to provide legal cover.