It was announced last Thursday that Wynn Resorts and PokerStars are all set to form a strategic alliance which will combine the prowess of the largest poker site on the internet with the brick and mortar casino. The merger is primarily aimed at pushing for the federal legislations which will legalize and regulate internet gambling in the United States.
The chief executive of Wynn Resorts, Steve Wynn said that the company is certain that a change is needed in the current situation of lack of regulation of internet gambling in the country. He emphasized that the act of gambling online was occurring on a mass scale in the US and the officials and the law enforcement don’t look like it has the capacity to stop it. He added that the legalization of the business will not only create thousands of jobs but will also bring in millions of tax dollars to the government.
The plan of both the companies for the new alliance is the proposed formation of a joint venture between the two which will be named PokerStarWynn.com and will provide online gambling services to the residents of the United States. This decision takes the stand of the Las Vegas based Wynn Resorts to a different direction as up until this time they had been staunchly against the legalization of online gambling and had made extensive efforts to ensure that online poker wasn’t legalized or regulated in the country. However, it now appears that Wynn is completely changing its strategy and is trying to find ways to run their own online poker rooms in case that the business is finally accepted by the lawmakers of the United States.
The announcement of this collaboration came right after a similar deal between Caesars Entertainment and 888 Holdings PLC was approved by the regulators in Nevada, making it the first such partnership to gain legal recognition. This was the first occasion when the regulators in Nevada had allowed a casino operator to do any significant business with a foreign internet gambling company.
