In the past month a number of online poker rooms have teamed up with land-based casinos in what can only be seen as a major push to get online gaming legalized in the United States: First there was Caesar’s Entertainment and 888 Holdings joining forces to expand the Ceasar’s brand into the UK and other locales; then we had the announcement of a PokerStars and Wynn Resorts partnership to help push online poker legislation at the federal level; and now comes the news that Full Tilt Poker and Station Casino’s owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta have joined forces in a similar effort.
The rumor was first reported by Wicked Chops Poker, and late last week the Wall Street Journal and Las Vegas Sun Review ran articles corroborating the rumors. The Las Vegas Sun Review was able to procure the following statement from another owner in Fertitta Interactive Tom Breitling, “Our arrangement with Full Tilt is confidential, but it is contingent on the passage of Federal legislation regulating internet poker… We believe that a Federal law for online poker is the way to go. We do believe that a Federal online poker bill would be good for Nevada. Nevada is a leader in gaming regulation and we need the thousands of high-paying high-tech jobs and the millions in tax revenues associated with online poker.”
The actual agreement will see Full Tilt Poker team up with Fertitta Interactive –owned in part by the Fertitta brothers mentioned above—in an effort to help legalize and regulate the online poker industry at the federal level. It should be noted that both publications noted that there is no tie-in with the Station Casinos although Fertitta Interactive is associated with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Tiltware, the parent company of Full Tilt Poker, told the WSJ a similar story, saying that they “couldn’t disclose the terms of the alliance with Fertitta Interactive, but that Full Tilt would continue to operate in the U.S. under the same name.”
With online poker and land-based casinos now openly teaming up to push for legislation it would seem only a matter of time before legalized online poker is a reality in the United States. One impetus for these alliances could be the proposed legislation by Harry Reid in late 2010 that would have frozen-out all current online poker companies, and would have gone so far as to disallow land-based casinos from purchasing their software.
Related Posts
- Full Tilt Poker and Station Casino Partnership Likely - March 30, 2011
- Wynn and PokerStars Joining Forces in USA Poker Fight - March 29, 2011
- After Election Losses, PPA Looks to States for Online Poker Legislation - November 11, 2010
Written by Steve Ruddock on April 4th, 2011