The battle over legalized online gambling in the United States went mainstream on Thursday when Business Insider published an in-depth column detailing the relationship between New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, and how that relationship may be keeping PokerStars’ online gaming license application on ice in the Garden State.

Christie’s office laughed off the allegations in their response to Business Insider, calling them “nonsensical” considering Christie signed the 2013 online gambling into law. “The DGE licensing review is an independent, technical process, the length of which varies case by case,” Kevin Roberts, a spokesman for the governor said.

That being said, there certainly is a lot of smoke that signifies there might be some fire.

The Christie/Adelson connection