It looks as though online poker giant Poker Stars is looking to branch out into land-based poker as well, with the revelation made in The Wall Street Journal last Thursday, December 6, 2012 that the site recently lauded for buying out beleagured former rival Full Tilt Poker and bailing out its debt with players worldwide is now about to make another big purchase in the form of a brick and mortar casino in none other than Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The state of New Jersey has been in the headlines a great deal, of late, with its nearly successful attempts at landmark passage of legal intrastate online poker. It’s widely viewed now that the success of one of these attempts is imminent.
So which Atlantic City casino is Poker Stars in the process of negotiating a deal to buy? How about the Atlantic City Hilton, aka The Atlantic Club Hotel-Casino, formerly known as the Golden Nugget. The estimated cost? Only $50 million. The sellers? Colony Capital.
In its deal with the DOJ, Poker Stars has agreed to pay $731 million to the U.S. government to settle a 9-count federal indictment. New Jersey’s gaming licensing regulations are notoriously strict. So it remains unclear whether Poker Stars’ recent settlement with the United States Department of Justice regarding the Black Friday seizures of April 2011 would affect the company’s ability to secure a gaming license from the state of New Jersey to operate that casino.