Bwin.Party, MGM and Boyd Gaming Announce Joint Venture

In yet another merger between US-based casino firms and an online poker giant, MGM Resorts International and Boyd Gaming have announced a join venture with Bwin.Party, the world’s largest public online gambling company.

At the moment, Bwin.Party is best known for their PartyPoker brand, as well as Bwin’s sports betting empire. In addition, they also own the World Poker Tour brand. Under the venture, these brands will now be operated by a new company that will be a joint venture of all three businesses. While Bwin.Party will continue to hold the lion’s share of the new venture, MGM Resorts will take 25% ownership, and Boyd will own 10% of the company.

Under the terms of the agreement, MGM and Boyd would be responsible for offering online poker to American players, should online poker become expressly legal under US law.

“It's all about preparing for the eventual opening of the market,” Bwin.Party Co-CEO Jim Ryan told Businessweek. “There's been an awful lot of momentum at the state and federal levels.”

At the moment, several different online poker options are being debated in the United States. At least one bill has made some progress in the United States Congress, while other bills have been debated in the legislatures of several states. However, most major casino industry players feel that federal-level legislation is the only way for the United States to truly reenter the online poker market in force.

At the moment, while online poker is not expressly illegal from the standpoint of American players, the US Justice Department has cracked down on many online poker operators. The most infamous instance of this came back in April, when indictments were filed against the operators of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker, which became known as Black Friday. The main charge against the company was that they were skirting the UIGEA laws passed in 2006, which placed restrictions on transactions between online gambling sites and financial institutions in the United States.