Forbes published an article yesterday on some pretty famous billionaire businessmen betting on legalized and regulated online poker in the United States. Richard Branson, Donald Trump and shopping mall magnate Herbert Simon are just some of the heavy hitters that have shown a keen interest in regulated online gaming.

From Forbes:

Indeed, billionaires who were burned by the Justice Department’s indictment of some of the key executives behind PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker have not been scared away from online gambling. Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, billionaire brothers who own Station Casinos, ripped up their partnership agreement with Full Tilt following the government crackdown on Full Tilt. But Fertitta Interactive, a company the brothers co-founded in 2010, is still going strong and just purchased CyberArts, an Oakland, Calif., outfit that produces online gambling software. “Fertitta Interactive fully supports the federal regulation of online poker in the United States,” Lorenzo Fertitta said in a statement in October.

It is not just the casino titans who are looking at Internet gambling as a potential goldmine. As Lasry’s move into this game shows, Wall Street’s Masters of the Universe are also paying close attention. In 2008 private equity firm Apollo Global Management, run by billionaires Leon Black, Joshua Harris and Marc Rowan, joined with TPG, the buyout shop run by billionaire David Bonderman, to purchase Harrah’s Entertainment in a massive $30 billion leveraged buyout. The deal has so far not been a good one, but Black and Bonderman are still trying to make it work. The company, now called Caesars Entertainment, has been investing heavily in its online operations and backing a new Washington D.C. lobbying effort that includes former FBI Director Louis Freeh. If online gambling in the U.S. opens for business, it would certainly help Black and Bonderman, two investing legends, get out of a tough spot.