Shareholders of Gocorp Limited have voted in favor of a merger with Lasseters Casino Pty Limited, operator of Australia's first regulated online casino. The resulting company will be called Lasseters Corporation Limited. Thirteen of 15 resolutions presented during the April 24 extraordinary general
meeting were passed, but two that would issue 500,000 stock options each to Gocorp Chairman Christopher Cullen and John Walton, a director in the company, failed.
"A number of shareholders were not particularly happy with the way Gocorp has progressed, even though myself and Mr. Walton have only been directors since about December, and this was a way for them to express displeasure," Cullen told The Courier-Mail.
Among the resolutions that did pass was the election of directors from Lasseters, including Dato Jaya JB Tan, Peter Bridge, Kamal YP Tan, Tajuddin JH Tan, Kuan Peng Soon and Fred Finch, along with Cullen, Walton and Allan Farrar from Gocorp.
In addition, 500,000 options were issued to Finch and 1 million options were issued to Bridge.
Shareholders also agreed to a share consolidation at a ratio of one share for every 10 shares on issue, resulting in approximately 100 million Gocorp shares and 13,425,000 Gocorp options on issue.
Officials at Lasseters say that the merger will make the e-casino company stronger. "We see now that players such as Kerry Packer, Tabcorp and other Australian companies are heading into online gaming, and are just waiting for clarification on the federal government's position before launch," Bridge told ABC News.
He added, "We see the overseas companies, some of them, like Nevada casinos are looking towards online gaming, and we want to be prepared and be ready to take them on."
The final stages of probity need to be completed before the transaction can close, which will then create a stronger online gaming company boasting a global player base of 130,000, two fully developed e-commerce sites, and a revenue streaming generating more than A$1.2 million monthly. Once probity
is completed, the company will ask the Australian stock exchange to lift the suspension on Gocorp's shares.