Until new details emerge, this will be the last installment of Cardplayer Lifestyle’s poker blog coverage of the U.S. online poker crisis. This poker blog entry will look at what the big news means in terms of PokerStars’ and Full Tilt Poker’s broader business ventures and interests.
Notably, both companies were recently in the news for preliminarily agreeing to partnerships with some of the bigger land-based casino entities. PokerStars had been in talks with Wynn Resorts to join forces, while Full Tilt Poker had been negotiating their own online-land-based poker partnership with Fertitta Interactive (owners of Station Casinos). Should this have happened, 2 mega-companies would have emerged, even further distancing themselves from any other industry competition. Anyhow, according to the Wall Street Journal and Associated Press, the land-based casino companies seem to have backed away as a result of the FBI and U.S. Justice Department’s actions.
Another unfortunate victim of the online poker shakeup is the Onyx Poker Cup series which we reported so excitedly about last month. Full Tilt has officially cancelled the series, which basically means that Erik Seidel will have to find somewhere else to make regular 6-figure paydays for the next few months :-).
I know I’ve been covering this online poker news story non-stop, but just to be sure, this story is definitely mainstream news too! In fact, the venerable ESPN.com also has plenty of coverage. Interestingly, however, despite a blatant disclaimer that “PokerStars and Full Tilt are sponsors of ESPN poker programming”, the website has removed all traces of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker advertising as far as this poker blogger can tell.
Should any further news emerge on this story so important to online poker and online casino players in the United States and the rest of the world, you’ll be sure to find it here at the Cardplayer Lifestyle poker blog. In the meantime, I’ll probably be writing the next few blog entries about other poker news that has gotten, er, “lost in the shuffle” over the last few days and weeks.
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