Senator Ray Lesniak Creates Turmoil in Poker Community – PokerStars Soon in New Jersey?

A statement made on the official Twitter account of Senator Raymond Lesniak about a week ago created quite turmoil within the poker community. In a nutshell, Lesniak hinted that PokerStars will soon be making its appearance in New Jersey and that it was a matter of weeks, not months.

PokerStars launch will spark an AC revival. Stay tuned for a major announcement...
— Senator Ray Lesniak (@SenatorLesniak) September 11, 2014

Although this ‘major announcement’ has not happened yet, the Senator made it quite clear that it will be coming soon and that this could have a huge positive impact on the economy of New Jersey. Lesniak is fierce proponent of legalization of online gambling and sports betting, which he believes would do a lot for the economy of the state.

With @PokerStars in NJ we're on our way to being the Silicon Valley of Internet gaming.
— Senator Ray Lesniak (@SenatorLesniak) September 11, 2014

Clearly, a giant like Poker Stars would create a great number of new job openings upon its entrance and now that they are owned by Amaya, there is nothing stopping them from entering NJ in legal sense. In fact, this was expected and speculated ever since the epic Rational Group deal with the Amaya, but Senator’s announcement fuels hopes of many who would rather see this happen sooner than later.

Lesniak did not stop at this however, as he continued answering questions and hinted that in a relatively near future, players could see not only interstate but even international player pools sitting at the same online tables. Although this may seem as a distant dream to American players at this point, the Senator is probably not making this up and has some insider information that he is not willing to share just yet.

Although the information is coming with little backup evidence at this point, it is the information from a knowledgeable source so, naturally, players are anxiously awaiting this ‘big announcement’. How long will we have to wait before we see American players at the tables once again? According to Lesniak – not long but we’ll believe it when we see it.