Zynga Releases Real Money Poker Facebook App in UK
Last Friday, the giant social gaming concern Zynga introduced a real money poker game available on Facebook with little fanfare.
The new app, called ZyngaPokerPlus, is a follow-up to a downloadable version released two years ago in 2012.
Facebook app runs on Party Poker’s network
PokerFuse.com reported that the Facebook app is affiliated with the Party Poker network.
Party Poker is of course familiar to U.S.-based online poker players not only because of its massive popularity prior to the 2006 passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and then its quick exit from the American online poker scene once that act became the law of the land, leading to severely restricted access to real money online poker games in the United States, but also for its recent dominance in the just-launched New Jersey online gambling market.
Currently only available for UK-based users
For the time being, only players based in the United Kingdom will be able to access the Zynga real money poker games via Facebook.
The same is true for the downloadable real money poker client the company put out in 2012, however the company likely has much higher hopes for the Facebook version, given the still-mighty popularity of the world’s largest online social network and the fact that the model hews closely to the company’s primary product, social media-based games.
Zynga, which is headquartered in the state of California, currently does not offer any real money online poker – or any other sort of real money online game – to players based in the United States.
At one time company was seeking Nevada online poker license
The company had sought a license to operate a real money poker business in the state of Nevada – the first state in the nation to regulate some form of Internet betting when it passed online poker legislation back in 2011 – but it withdrew that application last year, citing a desire to focus on its core product, social games.
The company is best-known for its smash hits games Farmville, Words with Friends, and Draw Something 2, just to name a few of its offerings.
Company has long generated rumors, news stories
Zynga made headlines in 2013, the company’s co-founder, Mark Pincus, stepped aside from his role as chief executive officer, handing over the reins to Don Mattrick, previously of Microsoft, last July.
For a long time, Zynga was also rumored to be working on a gaming partnership with none other than Wynn Interactive, however such an arrangement, despite much chatter, never came to pass.
After walking away from the helm of the company he helped to form, Pincus – who was also an early investor in Napster, Facebook, Twitter, and the once-mighty social network Friendster – has retained an advisory role with Zynga.
Also last year, the company was forced to lay off 18 percent of its total workforce.
