Wynn in partnership with Pokerstars
Wynn Resorts Ltd, which owns casinos in Las Vegas and Macau, has announced a partnership with Pokerstars and will push for federal legislation.
Casino owner Wynn Resorts Ltd has announced a partnership with Pokerstars in support of federal egaming legislation in the US.
The partnership would see the creation of a new online poker site, PokerstarsWynn.com, if federal legislation such as the bill introduced earlier this month by Congressman John Campbell comes to fruition.
Wynn Resorts CEO Steve Wynn told the Las Vegas Sun that “As a company that has safely conducted gaming in the US for more than 40 years, we believe that the same can be done for poker on the internet.”
Discussions of federal developments in the United States have frequently raised questions about the future role of those operators that have continued to take bets from American players since the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) came into force in 2006. This latest partnership suggests Wynn “ owner of eponymous casinos in Las Vegas and Macau “ is confident that a relationship with one such operator would not adversely affect any claim it might have to a gaming licence if and when legislation is passed.
The Wynn-Pokerstars partnership is, however, yet to receive legal approval from the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) or the Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC), and it is uncertain at this stage whether it would be looked upon in the same light as the agreement between Caesars Interactive Entertainment and Dragonfish, which secured the approval of the NGC yesterday.While that agreement was initially uncertain due to Dragonfish’s operation in Europe, Pokerstars’ acceptance of US liquidity is another question altogether.
Nevertheless, Pokerstars is continuing with its efforts to push through an intrastate bill in Nevada, the language of which allows US-facing operators to gain a licence and pool player liquidity with other regulated jurisdictions.
AB258 was heard yesterday by the Senate Judiciary Committee in Nevada, with Pokerstars providing several witnesses such as the site’s sponsored poker pro Vanessa Rousso and economic analyst Jeremy Aguero.
Also speaking was Pokerstars’ legislative lobbyist Richard Perkins, who admitted a federal solution might ultimately prove more profitable than state-by-state regulation but asked legislators “do any of you really think a federal solution is close at hand?”He added that “ through AB258 “ those behind the bill would hope to “put Nevada back in its rightful place at the top of the industry both terrestrially and online.”