PokerStars A "Business Built On Deceit, Chicanery" According To American Gaming Association

At the beginning of this year, PokerStars’ parent company the Rational Group announced it was buying The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel in Atlantic City for $50 million contingent on being granted “an Interim Casino Authorization by the relevant New Jersey authorities.”
Then last week, New Jersey officially approved its online gambling and poker bill, potentially bringing in an extra $1.5 billion to the state over the next five years. However, despite all the positive signs for PokerStars, the company’s bid to purchase The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel has now run into opposition from the American Gaming Association (AGA).
The gaming industry association represents the interests of major casino operators and game providers across the US. Now, perhaps in an attempt to stave off any future competition from PokerStars, the AGA has filed a brief with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission and Division of Gaming Enforcement opposing the purchase and labeling the world’s biggest online poker room as a “business built on deceit, chicanery and the systematic flouting of US law”.
The American Gaming Association brief then went on to explain: “Any action allowing PokerStars to be licensed would send a damaging message to the world of gaming, and to the world beyond gaming, that companies that engage in chronic lawbreaking are welcome in the licensed gaming business.”
Previous attempts by major casino interests to target PokerStars includes Caesars Entertainment’s failed move to exclude the company from New Jersey’s online gaming legislation. They did, however, successfully have PokerStars bared from Nevada’s online gaming market until 2018.
The AGA´s objection to the purchase of  The Atlantic Club by PokerStars could potentially put a massive 2,400 jobs at risk in New Jersey at a time when the state’s casino industry  is in bad need of investment. Following announcement of the AGA’s objection to the deal, Atlantic City Senator Jim Whelan commented: “They are motivated by greed and want to keep foreign investors out. I´m fed up with these guys and their “’holier than thou crap’.”