by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Nov 28, 2011 | Updated on Nov 28, 2011Before Black Friday there was a lot of news about land-based casinos and already existent poker sites joining sides and working together. Most notably was Wynn Resorts and PokerStars. But as we all know, Black Friday put an end to any of these proposed deals and essentially killed the whole thought of casinos and sites partnering up. But now, almost 8 months later, that talk is once again being circulated.Now, people like Donald Trump and Groupe Bernard Tapie, who is in the process of taking over Full Tilt, are expressing their very real interest in teaming up with some of the best resorts and casinos in the US. In fact, MGM has already begun its partnership with Bwin.Party.There are two sides of the coin when analyzing this story. On the one side, many people believe that proposed deals between major resorts and major poker rooms may basically kill any amount of competition from smaller rooms. This sounds like a good thing only if you are part of that site or casino, otherwise it means you will have a smaller variety of poker rooms to choose from. On the other side, many believe that deals and partnerships like these may propel legal online poker in the right direction. With the right lobbyists behind them, these sites and casinos are bound to make some sort of progress.At this point not much concrete progress has been made, but rest assured that with these partnerships being formed, it is hard to imagine that the push for legal online poker in the US will be repelled much longer. At this point, the only thing that is keeping progress to a minimum is the fact that it is congress who hold all the cards.
