The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) is a licensing company based in the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake in Canada.
The word scam might be a little harsh, but certainly they offer no comeback for the players if things go wrong at a site which they license.
Many poker and gambling sites use the KGC logo and it appears to offer security for the player. This is simply not true.
I must stress at this point that just because a place carries the KGC logo, it does not mean that the site is rigged in anyway, and indeed, almost all sites that carry the KGC logo are fair.
The KGC was set up by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) in the same initiative as the Mohawk Internet Technologies.(MIT)
(Have to love all these abbrieviations!)
The MIT provides a "co-location server park" within the Mohawk territories.
Although answerable to the Canadian government in theory, the actual overlap between Mohawk law and Canadian law seems to produce many grey areas, and what is legal and what is overlooked is very hard to define.
To operate from the server park, you first have to obtain a license from the KGC.
It is a convenient way for sites to operate as running a casino online from many countries, including the USA and UK, is illegal.
The laws being enforced therefore are the ones of the territory of Kahnawake and the enforcement is carried out by three people appointed by the Mohawk Council.
The first issue with this is that the people overseeing the fairness of the sites to whom licenses are issued are employed by the same people who set up the server park, thus generating a potential conflict of interests.
Obviously on its own, this is not enough to worry me, however, on emailing a few casinos to find out what they thought of the KGC, the issue of what the KGC do in terms of helping the customer was dodged by all.
Read an email to an online casino.
Even worse, the KGC has the power to make rulings that affect the money of the player.
Who do you think they would favour? Their paying customer, or the player on the site? Admittedly in a small case, the player might get the benefit in an attempt to preserve integrity, but in the long run the site owners are going to get the best of it.
Link to test case will follow
This is all a little disturbing, and I would therefore urge players to check for a backup independent body, such as Price Waterhouse Coopers, or similar, before putting any money onto an online casino.