PokerStars Makes Lobbying Attempts in New York

PokerStars is trying to include an online element in their future land-based casino plans in New York.

The East Coast US gambling news have been covering some legislative attempts for expanding New York land based casinos in the last couple of months and PokerStars added more savory to the hot issue. Some speculations came up last week that Rational Group, the parent company of the giant, was lobbing for an online poker component for its land based casino projects.

Curious rumors about meeting between lobbyist and government officials

Stuart Shorenstein, Rational Group lobbyist supposedly met with New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s senior staff representatives, trying to convince them to include an intrastate legislation concerning online poker sites in the US in their future agenda. Shorenstein justified his suggestion with examples from New Jersey and Delaware, which already have state-by-state legislation.

The official statement of the governor’s office was relatively plain, not giving any concrete information, claiming that Cuomo was neither for nor against the online US gambling laws, which might suggest that he is undecided for the time being.

Naturally, there is no doubt that legal online poker would surely generate sufficient revenues for the state budget in the future, in addition to the seven land casinos, which will be added to the state’s tribal properties.