Canadian Based Amaya Gaming Group set to Speak with New Jersey Online Gambling Regulators

June 20, 2014

For those that are not yet aware, Canadian online gambling company Amaya Gaming Group is set to purchase the world’s largest online poker site, PokerStars. One of the interesting things to come out of this merger, is that Amaya Gaming Group already has an online gambling license in New Jersey. It should theoretically be possible for PokerStars to piggyback on this, and begin to offer online poker in New Jersey. It appears that the local online gambling regulators realize this, and are ready to open discussions.

Amaya is buying PokerStars for almost $5 billion. And talks will begin this week with online gambling regulators in New Jersey, in an effort to get this legendary online poker site up and running within the state, entirely legally. One of the things that could well make this possible, is that several executives of PokerStars, who have been accused of fraud and money laundering, are stepping down from their posts. This helps to clear the situation in New Jersey for PokerStars, and should help them gain that oh so valuable online gambling license in the state. Something that up until now, has been impossible.

In many ways, this acquisition of PokerStars by Canadian based online gambling software developer Amaya Gaming Group, looks very much like a reverse merger. When a company like Amaya spends $5 billion, a sum of money many times greater that the company is actually valued at, then we have to ask the question whether Amaya will actually end up calling the shots, or are the just being used as a vehicle for getting PokerStars back into the legal online poker market in the USA?

Of course, at a roots level, the answer to this question doesn’t matter for us online gamblers. Either way, it’s still good news for online poker players in New Jersey. They will now be able to play at an online gambling site completely legally, and with the protection of local regulators.

We will certainly keep an eye on this deal as it progresses, as we have often given our opinion on Canadian based Amaya Gaming Group in the past, we have said many times that we think it is a hot company to watch. Now, with this PokerStars deal, it is potentially entering in to one of the biggest online gambling related transactions ever, a very interesting situation.