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Poker News

Shuffle Master grab pockets of Online Poker

Written By: PokerNet.com | May 2, 2012 | Posted In Poker News

Shuffle Master, one of the premium providers of gambling and gaming equipment has reported a jackpot in the month of March, with it’s their straight quarter reported at double-digit sales and earnings growth standing as its biggest sales gain in the past four years. This growth is seen to coincide with the consistent efforts of the company to provided new and innovative products and also to assist in providing top quality to its customers.

Not only that but the king pin asset of the casino gambling establishments also concluded deal last month that would help to give it a hold on the ever growing online poker market which has already proved fruitful in providing untapped opportunity and potential for many gambling entities.

The company had signed an agreement to a pact which would see it buy Ongame Network from bwin.party Services, where it paid a staggering $25.7 million in cash, with an additional $13.2 million proposed as a possibility in the following five years from the deal, contingent of the legalization of real money in online poker games within the heavily regulated United States.

Ongame, which is based in Stockholm, Sweden, is a currently operating online business-to-business poker network and also one of the largest providers of poker to online gaming operators.

The acquisition of Ongame by Shuffle Master is considered shaky in some respects. Shuffle Master currently only deals with lease, licenses and the selling of gambling tools ranging from card shufflers to chip sorters, as well as slot machines and also electronic versions of table games.

There are licenses of online versions of popular titles to regulated online operators overseas, though Shuffle Master doesn’t provide a poker platform. Spokeswoman for Shuffle Master, Julia Boguslawski has stated that this is because the poker platforms are very complex and time consuming to build.

The intended purchase of Ongame is to provide Shuffle Master a more effective way of tapping into the legalized online market and allow Shuffle Master a poker platform as a result, according to Boguslawski.

“This provides us with a way to participate in the European iGaming market,” said Boguslawski. “Given our many licenses, the potentially larger opportunity for us is in the U.S., where we believe it’s only a matter of time when, not if, online poker and other forms of online gaming are legalized.”

Under the provision of the Wire Act 1961, all forms of online gambling have been prohibited. However in a recent opinion revision by the Department of Justice, the act was revised to only extend to online sports betting and to allow the way for some forms of online gambling, though this has not settled tensions surrounding online poker.

It is still unclear when the door to online poker will be opened for United States citizens.

 

Source: Investors Business Daily

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