In anticipation of legalization and regulation of online gaming in the United States, MGM Resorts International and Boyd Gaming have teamed up with Bwin.Party to create an online company. This is huge news with concern to online poker in the United States as there is another player in the game looking to get legislation passed.

MGM Chief Executive Officer Jim Murren commented:

“We know there are millions of U.S. citizens risking billions of dollars at unregulated, illegal sites and there is no way to enforce good behavior, and this has to change.”

Chief Executive of Boyd Gaming, Keith Smith, agreed:

“We believe that the right approach to offering legal online poker in the United States is through a federal regulatory structure that ensures the games are conducted with the greatest possible integrity and security. Should Congress enact legislation to legalize Internet poker, this agreement will allow us to partner with the world’s most experienced and prestigious online operator to offer a secure, fair and entertaining experience for players in the United States.”

All three companies are large players on the casino scene. Bwin.Party is the largest public online gaming company in the word with revenues of $716 million last year. MGM generated $6 billion of revenue from their brick-and-mortar casinos, while Boyd recorded roughly $2 billion from their casinos. The yet to be named company will be split amongst the three parties with Bwin.Party owning 65% of the company, MGM owning 25%, and Boyd holding 10%.

One can only imagine the future of online poker when it’s perfectly legal and is connected to brick-and-mortar casinos. Players may be able to earn rewards, such as weekend getaways at popular brick-and-mortar casinos owned by MGM or Boyd Gaming. Both parties own huge players in the live poker scene: MGM dominates the western half of the United States with their Aria, Bellagio, and MGM Grand casinos while Boyd Gaming completely dominates the Atlantic City scene with The Borgata. It only makes sense that one of the largest online poker companies in the world would team up with these two American casino companies.

What would you like to see come from this partnership? Comment below!