In the Works: PokerStars Buying Atlantic Club Casino

Online poker company PokerStars is in talks about possibly purchasing the Atlantic Club casino, formerly the Atlantic City Hilton, from investment firm Colony Capital LLC for less than $50 million. It is no secret that the Atlantic Club casino in Atlantic City has been struggling. PokerStars believes this could be an opportunity for them if it can beat the major legal and regulatory obstacles.

PokerStars Lawsuit

This comes shortly after PokerStars spent $731 million to settle a Justice Department lawsuit which accused it of bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling. PokerStars, based in the Isle of Man, never admitted to anything but paid the fines. The company's founder, Israeli entrepreneur Isai Scheinberg, remains under indictment on related criminal charges. PokerStars is the number one poker company and continued to accept US bets when most others were pushed out by the federal government's stance that taking bets was illegal. PokerStars claimed that they didn't believe federal law prohibited online poker operations. It does have licenses that allow legal operations in the UK.

PokerStars Reputation

PokerStars took bets up until April 2011 when the Justice Department filed suit against them. Until that point, they built up their name in the U.S. by promoting famous poker players and sponsoring poker television programming on a major broadcast network. The settlement says nothing about PokerStars re-entering the U.S. under a legal online poker system. They are prepared to re-enter under another major poker brand called Full Tilt Poker.

Others Move Forward

Other casinos hope to offer online poker, but the chances of success are still up in the air. So far, only Nevada has created a regulated online poker environment, with bets limited to people within the state. California is also considering online poker legislation.