Posts Tagged ‘Resorts Casino’

PokerStars wants to build $10 Million Poker Room in Atlantic City

Friday, October 4th, 2013

PokerStars isn’t giving up on Atlantic City yet. Just months after their failed deal with the Atlantic Club Casino, PokerStars’ parent company, The Rational Group, is seeking to build a $10 million poker room in the East Coast gambling hub.

The $10 million complex would be housed in Resorts Casino Hotel, which hasn’t had a poker room since 2010. Resorts spokesman William J. Pascrell III discussed The Rational Group’s plans for his casino through the following statement:

As soon as the license is in hand, they’re ready to start building. It will be the PokerStars poker room at Resorts. PokerStars is committed to investing significant resources to put in a brand new poker room at Resorts Casino Hotel. In addition to the poker room, they are committed to driving traffic to Atlantic City through their marketing.

Of course, obtaining licensing anywhere in the US has been a chore for PokerStars from day 1. The big reason why The Rational Group lost out on buying the Atlantic Club is because they couldn’t get the state of New Jersey to approve them before a set date. This allowed the Atlantic Club to walk, as per their contract, leaving Stars with millions of dollars in lost money.

It’s a good bet that Stars has learned their lesson this time around, and they likely have a rock-solid contract with Resorts Casino. Assuming The Rational Group gains approval to build their $10 million poker room, it’ll give them a headquarters in the United States.

More importantly, it will put PokerStars in line to serve the ballyhooed US online poker market. Many companies are clamoring to get into New Jersey’s legalized online poker market, which launched on November 26th. And any company that gets in now will have access to multi-state pacts that New Jersey makes with other states. Of course, Stars is mainly focused on accomplishing the first thing: getting a license for their live poker room.

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.