Posts Tagged ‘Mark Scheinberg’

Will Amaya Gaming finally get PokerStars in the US?

Friday, June 13th, 2014

The big poker news today – and it’s colossal – is that Amaya Gaming has made a deal with the Rational Group to buy PokerStars, Full Tilt and live tournament tour assets for $4.9 billion. For years people have speculated about the worth of PokerStars and now they know.

One of the key points of this deal is that Isai Scheinberg and his son, Mark, relinquish their shares in the company and ride off into the sunset with billions. The reason why this part of the deal is so big is because it means that PokerStars might finally be able to enter the elusive United States market.

The legal US online poker market is fully underway, with Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada all featuring regulated gaming sites. And so far, PokerStars’ attempts to enter these states have went like this:

Delaware – Stars was denied because Delaware is mainly looking for companies that offer both casino and poker games.

New Jersey – Review of PokerStars’ application has been suspended for two years in the Garden State.

Nevada – Nevada evoked the “bad actor” clause to prevent Stars from entering their market for at least 10 years.

The key point behind PokerStars’ bad actor status in Nevada is that they violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Moreover, the Scheinberg’s retained ownership of the Rational Group after they’d violated the UIGEA.

But now we have Amaya running the show at PokerStars. The Canadian supplier of gambling equipment has no ties to Black Friday, meaning it’s hard to use the bad actor excuse to keep them out.

Of course, despite what state gaming regulatory bodies may say, this is all about anti-competitiveness and helping in-state casinos get off to a strong start. So no matter how illogical it seems, certain US states may still try to call upon PokerStars’ past to keep them out, even though an entirely different company is now in charge.

As for Amaya, it’s likely that they were willing to spend $4.9 billion on Rational’s assets because they know there’s even more potential for Stars IF they can get into the US.

PokerStars partners with Resorts Casino to offer New Jersey Online Poker

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013

PokerStars is hoping to enter the US online poker world again after striking a deal with Resorts Casino Hotel. The two companies have submitted an application to New Jersey so that they can run an online poker site in this newly legalized market.

“This is another blue chip partner for Resorts to complete a wonderful series of brands – Mohegan Sun, Margaritaville and now PokerStars,” said Resorts’ CEO Morris Bailey. Just last month, Resorts Casino Hotel welcomed the Margaritaville franchise, so the PokerStars deal is just another huge milestone for them.

This has definitely got to be sweet for Stars as well because they’ve got a very realistic chance of entering the US online gaming market. “Resorts is a fantastic partner for us and we are looking forward to launch PokerStars in the U.S. in association with the other quality brands Resorts has brought to Atlantic City,” said Mark Scheinberg, PokerStars’ CEO. “We are very happy to invest in New Jersey and we are excited about building a successful relationship with Resorts.”

Several month ago, The Rational Group, which owns PokerStars, thought they already had a deal worked out the Atlantic Club Casino in regard to entering New Jersey. However, this fell through when Stars couldn’t obtain a New Jersey gaming license on their own.

The Atlantic Club then backed out of the deal, despite The Rational Group dumping $11 million into the struggling casino. Rational then filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic Club to block them from selling to another company. This lawsuit was then rejected on grounds that the contract stipulated Atlantic Club could walk away from the deal if Stars failed to get licensed.

PokerStars may not be getting their own casino from which they can launch an online poker site. However, they’ll at least have a good chance to enter the US again thanks to Resorts Casino.