MGM Resorts International are the masterminds behind the ‘Let NY Play’ social media campaign, that has hit the airwaves at the beginning of September, aimed at promoting a legalized online poker framework in New York.
They don’t own a casino in New York, and they haven’t even stumped up the $70m necessary to buy one of the four licenses that are currently up for grabs, but that hasn’t stopped MGM Resorts International wanting in on New York’s online poker action.
The New York Times scribe, Patrick McGeehan, has revealed that MGM are the brains behind the Let NY Play social media outfit that surfaced at the beginning of September. Let NY Play consists of a Facebook page, and Twitter handle, that has promoted the unfairness of New Jersey residents being allowed to play online poker, whilst nearby New Yorkers cannot.
“You can get almost anything online, expect a spot at a poker table,” and, “You can play online poker at any exit in New Jersey, but not in New York,” are two of the campaigns that have recently been distributed to a Facebook page that contains 5,233 likes, and 424 Twitter followers.
MGM – who reported nearly $10bn in sales and revenues last year, and in Q2 of this year saw revenue hit the $2.58bn mark – are a big advocate of a legalized online poker framework within New York, despite not having any assets tied up in the practice anywhere else in the world.
That could all change after the New Jersey Casino Control Commission recently approved MGM’s request to reclaim the New Jersey gaming license that they lost in 2010, after fisticuffs that erupted over their relationship with Macau’s Pansy Ho. Speaking to the New York Times, Executive Vice President of MGM Resorts, Alan Feldman, said: “There could be a separate site related to MGM in New Jersey,” when asked about the possibility of putting their brand onto an online poker company in the Garden State.
The bigwigs at MGM were also the masterminds behind a New York gambling study that turned over a stone to show as much as $110m being gambled with on illegal online poker games. That same study also believed that some $50-80m of that green could be converted into annual taxes for the New York government, as well as an additional $80m in online license fees.
They are obviously staring into the same all-seeing eye that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie looked through when he got all excited about the money that online poker would bring to New Jersey.
