PokerStars New Jersey Debut As Soon As October 1st

Once the most popular brands in American online poker, PokerStars and Full Tilt subsequently found themselves labelled “bad actors” post Black Friday and shut out of the country’s newly regulated iPoker market. However, the two iconic sites may be on the brink of a much-anticipated return to the USA after a recent article appeared in NJPokerOnline saying that their new owner Amaya Gaming was close to being granted an online gambling license, with a launch date then slated for October 1st.
PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker’s possible return to New Jersey comes as a direct result of Amaya gaming’s $4.9 billion acquisition of the Rational Group, with part of the agreement involving the Scheinberg family stepping down from any involvement with the business. This was a fundamental requirement of being granted a license as New Jersey had already indicated it was not prepared to let any “bad actors” near it’s nascent iGaming framework. As mentioned on cardschat.com:
“According to the report, Amaya received a preliminary approval to prepare their two brands for New Jersey launches just before an August 11 deadline. That would give them more than a month to meet all of the technical and regulatory standards necessary to receive a license in the state.”
Nevertheless some significant challenges still have to be overcome before New Jersey players will be able to gamble on a PokerStars site, not least sorting out the licensing structure to be used. Amaya Gaming already provides software to a number of Atlantic City casinos, including the Golden Nugget, Caesars, the Borgata and Trump Plaza, and so these venues could then object to Amaya bringing such formidable competition as PokerStars and Full Tilt back to the New Jersey market.
Whichever framework is eventually agreed upon, however, PokerStars launch in New Jersey has the potential to give a massive boost to the state’s iGaming industry, which has thus far failed to match expectations. While PokerStars is the most respected and trusted brand across the globe with a hugely attractive online poker product, Full Tilt has already branched out to also offer its customers online casino games.