The Prodigal Company Amaya Returns

In some of the biggest online poker news of the year, poker mega-networks, PokerStarsand Full Tilt, are finally returning to the United States after a four year hiatus. Their parent company, Amaya Gaming, made the announcement on Thursday, October 1st, that the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement(DGE) has authorized it to begin running poker games within the state again. This move will be extremely influential, not only on the players and finances of New Jersey, but likely the legal status of iPokeracross the country.

Amaya Gaming is the owner of two of the world’s largest poker gaming platforms, PokerStars and Full TIlt as well as the host of the European Poker Tour, the Latin American Poker Tour, and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour. However, neither PokerStars nor Full Tilt have operated in the United States since 2011 when the government seized control of their domain names on charges of federal bank fraud and money laundering. While the case was ultimately settled out of court, the strict regulation around online gambling in the United States has kept the companies operating exclusively outside of the country.

David Baazov, Chairman and CEO of Amaya, said in a recent press release:

It is no surprise that Baazov is keeping Amaya’s plans under wraps. The announcement alone that PokerStars and Full Tilt are returning has been enough to see an exorbitant spike in company stock as well as a lot of buzz across social media. The company will likely ride the hype for a little while and then spring whatever plans it has for New Jersey just as the excitement begins to ebb. Considering that the big return is currently limited only to New Jersey, it would be unwise to build too much hype too quickly before Amaya is actually able to expand to other markets, particularly considering that only three stateshavesuccessfully legalized online poker and hence, there is only so much room for expansion.

This return, though currently small in scope, is likely the herald of significant advancement in the future for legalization and increased access to online poker for Americans. Amaya is a powerful and well funded group and will almost certainly use its money to aid the legalization process in other states. This may be an uphill battle for them and many states attempting to legalize have gotten stuck on the “Bad Actor” clause which would prohibit PokerStars and Full Tilt from applying for iPoker license in any state that added it to a legalization bill.

Still, having the financial support of a group like Amaya may be enough to sway the balance in some states regardless of questionably legal past actions. Regardless, this toehold in the American gambling market is a great success for Amaya and we will likely be hearing a lot more about the company in the foreseeable future, perhaps even an American Poker Tour some day.