Before Amaya Gaming could say, “hello,” to its New Jersey Gaming License, the massive poker company had to say, “Goodbye,” to four of its top executives.
That was a specific demand from the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) before granting Amaya a New Jersey gaming license, according to a report in iGamingBusiness.com.
Those four executives, Michael Hazel, Stars former CFO Israel Rosenthal, director of operations for the Rational Group; Charles Fabian, former head of games systems development ; and application manager Serge Bourenkov all had longtime ties to the company.
While many years of service is normally an asset for companies and employees, that’s not the way the DGE saw the matter. They politely asked Amaya to fire the employees and the company complied.
Furthermore, Amaya agreed to contact gaming regulators immediately if any of the men, some of whom are close friends with the powerful Scheinberg family, attempts to influence Amaya’s gaming operations.
So far, there hasn’t been any word on when the men will actually be shown the door, or how much they’ll get on the way out. Given their stature and personal relationships however, it’s safe to say they’ll be well taken care of.
No matter how much Amaya spends on severance pay, it’s going to be chump change compared to what they’ve spent acquiring PokerStars and a coveted re-entry into the US market. That price tag is well over a $500 million dollars.
Additionally, Amaya agreed to, “Irrevocably and totally extinguishing the ownership interest of Isai and Mark Scheinberg.”
With the piper completely paid, Amaya is ready to bring PokerStars back to America. The question now is whether American poker players will want to have anything to do with the company?