PokerStars Purchase of Atlantic Club Casino Delayed

The world’s largest real money online poker room, PokerStars, planned acquisition of Atlantic City’s Atlantic Club Casino is on hold for the moment.

The Interim Casino Authorization petition has not yet been filed with the Division of Gaming Enforcement, according to a report in NorthJersey.com. 

While Stars parent company, the Rational Group, intends to move forward with the acquisition, there is a 90-day window for DGE review that has yet to even get started.

The planned purchase is said to be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $20 to $50 million.  Any acquisition will probably not happen until late summer at the earliest.

The American Gaming Association (AGA) has written a letter to the state requesting that they prohibit PokerStars from purchasing the troubled property.  The AGA suggested that Stars is a “criminal enterprise” while the online poker room fought back claiming that the AGA has other economic motives for trying to block such a sale.

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com