Amaya Probe Delaying PokerStars New Jersey Approval

Since New Jersey regulated online poker in 2011, PokerStars has been trying to gain access to the market without success, and in 2013 had its application suspended for two years due to an outstanding federal indictment against the company’s founder Isai Scheinberg. There were then hopes that Amaya Gaming’s purchase of PokerStars’ parent company, Rational Group, last year may have been a game changer and sped up the process, but the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) is still continuing with its review of the acquisition, resulting in the frustrating delay. As NJDGE director David Rebuck recently explained to Roger Gros, publisher of Global Gaming Business:
“We’ve done 80 sworn interviews, traveled to a half a dozen foreign countries. We’re going to do this in a very professional way, because whatever decision we come down on will be scrutinized and some will hate it, some will love it, but it will be done in a way that this division can have pride saying ‘this is accurate.’”
Needless to say, the long delay in Amaya’s iGaming application process is proving extremely frustrating for New Jersey’s online poker players, who have eagerly been anticipating the return of the world’s most popular online poker brand. PokerStars is currently showing an average of 15,000 cash players over a 7-day period worldwide, and while the site’s entry into the New Jersey market will be on a ring-fenced basis, it is hoped its superior software and marketing will help boost traffic from the 170 cash players currently showing for WSOP/888, and the 110 players for Party Borgata.
Furthermore, if PokerStars does managed to turn around the Garden State’s online poker market, there is also the potential for further expansion across the US if other states are then encouraged to introduce legislation of their own. While the NJDGE continues its “thorough, comprehensive, detailed review” of Amaya, State Senator Ray Lesniak seems less than happy with the delay, which he apparently believes is politically motivated. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is running for the White House in 2016, and as one online poster called “fcbasel” noted on Pokerfuse:
“As long as Christie wants Adelson’s money, he’ll keep PokerStars out of New Jersey.”