Fertitta Interactive, a Las Vegas based company owned by the founders of Station Casinos,  has entered a partnership deal with world renowned online poker site Full Tilt Poker, to work on the passage of federal Internet gaming legislation to regulate and license online poker in the United States.

The partnership is expected to be officially announced by the companies on Thursday afternoon. The news come less than a week after Wynn Resorts, owner of Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, announced a deal with Pokerstars.com to push a legislation that would result in the licensing and regulation of online poker  in the State of Nevada.

Two owners of Fertitta Interactive, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III, also co-own Station Casinos and the Ultimate Fighting Championship, but despite its relation with Las Vegas Hotel and Casino operator, partners in Fertitta Interactive revealed that Station Casinos has no involvement in the deal with Full Tilt.

Full Tilt and Fertitta Interactive will work together to push a Federal legislation to legalize online poker in the U.S and eventually launch and operate an online poker website if a regulatory structure is established by the Federal Government.

According to Tom Breitling, co-owner of Fertitta Interactive, the agreement covers the potential federal legislation for Internet poker, but not a project currently debated by Nevada Legislators (Assembly Bill 258), which only establishes the basis to legalize online poker in the State of Nevada.

"We believe that a federal law for online poker is the way to go. We do believe that a federal online poker bill would be good for Nevada. Nevada is a leader in gaming regulation, and we need the thousands of high-paying high tech jobs and the millions in tax revenues associated with online poker." commented Breitling.