PokerStars Eyes Fall Debut In New JerseyAmaya CEO 'Expects To Be Up And Running' In Q3 |
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Amaya Gaming Group, which bought PokerStars and its sister site Full Tilt last year for $4.9 billion, believes that it will be able to launch real-money online poker in New Jersey this fall, Amaya’s CEO David Baazov said in a conference call this week, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
PokerStars has long indicated it wanted into the New Jersey online gambling industry, which kicked off in 2013. Garden State Gov. Chris Christie has been blamed for the delay, but there’s been no proof that he has been blocking the license.
If the licensing process is completed for Amaya, PokerStars would run online poker via a partnership with Resorts Atlantic City, a brick-and-mortar property in the seaside town.
Partnerships are required for tech suppliers interested in the New Jersey I-gaming market.
Revenue from New Jersey’s online poker sites was $2,045,655 in February, a decline of 34.2 percent compared to February 2014. The combined online poker revenue of January and February of this year was $4,345,081, down from the January-February total last year of $6,551,474. Poker increasingly represents a tiny fraction of overall I-gaming win, which has remained flat.
New Jersey’s online poker industry took in just over $29 million in 2014.
The entrance of PokerStars into New Jersey could make a federal online poker ban even more unlikely. The piece of legislation, called “RAWA”, already faces long odds.
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