No PokerStars in New Jersey For the Time Being

Bad news for PokerStars and quite possibly for Atlantic City as the online poker giant of a company misses out on buying the Atlantic Club Hotel and Casino, at least for the time being. The deal is now dead due to the fact that Stars holding company Rational Group and the current owners of the casino Colony Capital had a deal that meant the buyer, PokerStars, had until Friday April 26th to obtain an interim casino license from the New Jersey Gaming Commission and this has failed to materialize. New Jersey was by many seen as the launching pad for PokerStars re-entry into the United States and it still maybe so, but not for a while it seems. Regulators have until August to decide on whether or not Stars is fit for a license to operate a casino in the Garden State and there is opposition against it most notably from the American Gaming Association. The AGA have clearly stated that they are against Stars obtaining a license due to their previous history in the US. It is worth stating however that they do have a clean bill of health as far as the Department of Justice is concerned having paid their fines and cleared their name. There is no chance of a Nevada license for the company either due to the bad actor clause in the Nevada online gaming bill and Delaware is a long shot due to the way they intend on setting up the online gaming venture as a whole.

There is still some optimism in the new Jersey camp and Sen Ray Lesniak a strong supporter of Stars participation in the online venture in the state said, "I wouldn't believe anything right now and just wait until the decision from the Division of Gaming Enforcement, what I know is that the opponents of PokerStars are out there in full force trying to prevent them from operating in New Jersey." Lesniak was of course speaking about the AGA.