Party Gaming’s US market coup

With their merger with Bwin still all systems go Party Gaming, the company behind Party Casino have pulled off another coup…and it’s a very big one.

According to a report in the Daily Mail they have managed to stitch up an arrangement with a few big US casinos at the recent ICE exhibition in London. Although I have to say the report by Geoff Foster is a tad confusing.

He says,

“[O]n the first day of the three-day event….it [PartyGaming] has signed a lucrative b2b deal with one or even two Big Daddy US casinos  –  Boyd Gaming, MGM, Las Vegas Sands and Caesars  –  to provide them with an online poker platform for the US market when it is finally regulated.”

The confusing part is that he says the deal is with one or two casinos…then he mentions four!

And they’re all big.  MGM, Las Vegas Sands and Caesars are massive corporations known by most gamblers and with substantial properties around the world.  Boyd ain’t small fry either with nine properties on the Vegas Strip and casinos in other states, including the Borgata in Atlantic City.

Whether it’s one, two or all four who have agreed to use the Party Gaming platform…that’s a lot of new players playing PartyGaming-powered online poker should Congress ever give online gambling the green light!

Even if HR2267, or equivalent legislation doesn’t pass, proposed State based I-gaming regulations like the New Jersey bill awaiting Governor Christie’s signature will allow the likes of Borgata to offer online poker powered by Party Gaming to New Jersey residents.

But what’s poker got to do with live casino games?

The fact that these massive US corporations are positioning themselves to offer an online product (assuming the report is accurate!) suggests to me that they must believe that a regulated US market is getting closer to a reality.  It should also be remembered that these corporations are members of the politically powerful lobby group the AGA…which plays a significant role in shaping gambling policy in Washington.

The more these guys are batting for a regulated US market, the more likely it is that it will happen.  And that of course means that all you US folk may have some great new live gaming options available to you in the not too distant future!