Amaya CEO David Baazov Charged with Insider Trading: How will this affect PokerStars?

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The Canadian securities regulator, AMF, has brought insider trading charges against David Baazov, CEO of PokerStars' parent company Amaya. Allegations are that certain parties (including Baazov) abused privileged information in order to financially benefit from the Amaya takeover of the Oldford Group (once parent company to Rational Group, which PokerStars and Full Tilt were operated under) back in June of 2014.

Amaya CEO David Baazov insider trading charges 609x457


The question that seems to be on everyone's mind is: will this turn of events hurt the PokerStars New Jersey launch, and/or have an impact on a could-be return of PokerStars to other US markets?

Read the article for more details, and share your thoughts with us!
 
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For everything that had to be done by PokerStars to be able to even enter the New Jersey market to begin with, this couldn't have come at a worse time for them, and really, for American players that have been working really hard to spread the word of online poker (Jason Somerville, Daniel Negreanu, among others). Of course I have no knowledge on what's going to at this exact moment.

I hope that this gets resolved, but to me, the worst case scenario is that PokerStars loses their licensing in New Jersey and this closes the door forever for entry into the US market, either at the state level, or federally.

All I can say is, somewhere, Sheldon Adelson is laughing and thinking that this is exactly what he needed in his fight to have online poker closed off in America.

By extension, what does this mean for US-facing sites? Does the DOJ re-double their efforts to really close things down? The reason I wonder is that you had everything that took place pre-Black Friday, and now, in a legislated world, the largest online operator, seemingly, has demonstrated that they cannot be trusted. Again, just thinking aloud here, and it's too early to say what is going to happen, but this cannot be good.

*** Interesting point of observation - the major online pro's that usually twitch aren't online today, except for Jason Somerville, who is playing on PokerStars New Jersey - screen name is jcarverNJ ***
 
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something strange is happening to PS, or maybe its only a big money talk
 
I believe that he is also being investigated by the US government for securities violations.
The US takes these cases more seriously than Canada so this guys troubles are far from over.
 
Seems like these guys havent learnt anything from past events.
Heres hoping that pokerstars dont take the fall for this.
 
BigJamo said:
Seems like these guys havent learnt anything from past events.
Heres hoping that pokerstars dont take the fall for this.
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This didn't undermine the game, or the integrity of the game that PS has shown over the years, but it does undermine their efforts to expand because the guy who gets credit for, and takes the falls for running the game is now suspect.

The best thing that can happen is for this to move rapidly, one way or another, to a conclusion. But the layers involved won't do that. They will delay and delay and delay, on both sides, till the whole thing falls completely out of the realm of being newsworthy.

The one thing I fault Stars for after Black Friday is not forcing the issue and demanding rapid legal conclusions of the 'crimes' it (and others) were accused of. By avoiding the courts, Stars helped muddy the legal landscape involved.

But it still breaks my heart. I can foresee the downstream BS this will cause, and for the most part it means nothing on the OLP front will advance.

While the Stars name might still mean quality in the OLP world, it loses credibility as a business that can be trusted.🙁

Or maybe not! Many other brands get caught up in Corporate Raiding. Usually it is some rich guy buying a company that owns a brand, and his only idea is to break that company apart for profit. The brand doesn't suffer much if any. That usually happens with diversified companies.

There are tons of products we all trust that are owned by folks (individuals and companies) we would we not think of as upstanding.
 
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Run them out of town on a rail. Stuff like this gives good guys bad names (if there is any). Dont think for one minute its different players its just different faces behind the scenes. They ran away the last time without standing up. Time will tell this time. I hope im wrong but really? If it looks like an onion and taste like an onion and smells like an onion its not an apple. NH poker stars GG!
 
arizoney said:
They ran away the last time without standing up.
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I have a similar opinion.

If Stars (gazillions of dollars at that time), had forced the issues in the the US courts, the whole OLP world would be in a much saner place. The part of the UEGIA that screwed us could have been beat.

There could have been clarity, instead we have confusion, and are stuck in this gawd damned legal limbo.

FWIW, this is my only real complaint about Stars.
 
Honestly, if people want to play Pokerstars in the US, they should be able to play.
 
RR25c said:
Honestly, if people want to play Pokerstars in the US, they should be able to play.
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Believe it or not, that is not even the issue.

Americans can't play on Pokerstars (outside of NJ atm) because Pokerstars doesn't offer their service to them.

It's easy to get caught up in all this about the rights of the people and what not, but this whole issue is one between the operators and the governments of the jurisdictions in which they would like to operate.

In most states in the US, Pokerstars, nor any other site, is making any effort at all to enter the market, and thus it will be forever and a day before players in those states get the opportunity to play.

Pokerstars was naughty, the people who ran it chose to flout US laws rather than come proper, and because of that they and all other operators face high hurdles to regain market entry.

IMHO Pokerstars doesn't get near enough blame for the debacle that is online poker today, or the obstacles in states like CA where the fight is 'Pokerstars or nothing'
 
PokerStars has essentially become a household name, am I right? They provide lightening fast, 1st class service worldwide to millions of clients every day 24/7. Yet, their past (and it would seem perhaps their present) remains mired in allegations of criminal intent.

Wait a minute - isn't that kind of how Vegas began? And, look where it got them.

No, Pokerstars isn't going anywhere. In the end, it will all work out. There's just too much money to be made by all involved.
 
Too many bad operators in online poker operations. They keep giving legislators an excuse to criminalize online poker.
 
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