Wednesday April 3 was a big day for Zynga Plus Poker as it became available to online players in the United Kingdom. The company is offering UK players a chance to try out its various real money casino and poker games. These include blackjack, slot machines, card games and a host of other options.

The Zynga company is joining up as a partner with bwin.party, which is recognized as the biggest publicly-traded online betting venture in the world. Bwin.party, which is headquartered in Gibraltar, made a profit of more than $32 million last year. Barry Cottle, who is the Chief revenue officer for Zynga, said the company is excited to be offering web and download versions of their real money games in Britain because the public has been asking for them. He added that Zynga is also looking forward to launching its social versions of the games later this year on mobile options and Facebook.

It’s obvious that the company’s shareholders are happy with the move since its stock went up approximately 15 per cent when the British versions were launched. Zynga will be happy with that since its stock has fallen quite rapidly since last August. The company saw some of its top managers leave the nest and that caused the stock to dive. Zynga admitted that it paid too much for OMGPOP and its quarterly losses reached about $52 million. Reports have pegged Zynga’s losses for 2012 at as much as $200 million or more.

It’s believed that the company’s new British venture could eventually set the table for a possible expansion to America. This could take place since several U.S. states are getting quite close to legalizing online betting with Nevada and New Jersey likely being the first two to allow it. These two states already offer legal gamble in their on-land casinos, which are hugely popular. Illinois, Delaware, and California are also interested in legalizing online gaming.

Zynga isn’t wasting any time as they’ve already contacted the Nevada Gaming Control Board and have filed a ‘finding of suitability’ report with them. This is the first call of action necessary to be approved to offer real-money online wagering in the state. Zynga’s online games offer a social experience that is usually found only in brick and mortar casinos, so there’s a good chance it will prove popular in the UK and the U.S.

Analysts predict that if the company does well over the next couple of years then its bottom line should look quite a bit better next year or in 2015. They don’t believe that partnering up with bwin.party will result in any immediate or short-term financial windfall however. Of course, this projection could quickly change if online gaming is legalized in America in the near future.

BetFred has become the first online gambling site to use Playtech’s brand new live dealer mobile gambling application. Playtech recently took a massive gamble by becoming the first casino software developer to create a mobile casino game that featured live dealers. Many other competitors have been wary of developing such a product at this time, with the general thought amongst them being that live streaming and live dealer games just isn’t ready to be released on the current mobile casino devices in existence. Playtech however have thought differently, and the new live dealer casino game mobile gambling application has already been snapped up by BetFred, who are eager to become the first gaming site to reap the rewards if the technology proves a hit.

Live dealer games are generally only available to the online casino market via home computers and laptops due to the immense streaming power that they require. Live dealer games generally involve a live stream being broadcast from a studio where the dealer is present. The game is thus played via video stream and a gaming control menu on your computer. However, Playtech have found a way to make the system work for mobile gamers too now.

The question is; are Bet Fred going to get their value out of it? Well, BetFred might be the only online gambling site to currently offer the live casino mobile application, but that will soon change, and it thought that others are already waiting in the wings to snap up the product. Bet Fred however, is currently the only site offering it, so a lot of new gamers eager to try out the product will be heading in their direction! Whether or not the new live dealer mobile casino games application is any good, is another question.

At present the live dealer mobile casino app consist of only live dealer roulette, although blackjack and baccarat are predicted to be launched by Playtech on the Bet Fred live dealer mobile casino app within the coming weeks. The platform is only valid for Android devices at the minute too, meaning that many iOS and HTML5 players are also missing out on the latest Playtech brainchild. However this too is expected to change in the coming weeks or months and Playtech will almost certainly make the Bet Fred app available to other platforms and devices.

Roulette is one of the most popular live dealer casino games in the online gambling world, so it was only natural that this would be the first of the live dealer mobile casino games to be released. It would also make sense that poker and craps before long find their way onto the platform too, although there has been no word from Playtech on this at this time.

It is the rapid use of 3G technology that makes the Bet Fred mobile casino live dealer application so appealing, as it would be of little use to players on Wi-Fi connections as they couldn’t play on the go; only where Wi-Fi connections are available. The advent of 3G however means no matter where a player is, in the office, on the train or in a taxi they can witness the power and realism of live dealer roulette with Bet Fred.

The online sports betting site Bet365.com recently launched a completely new version of their mobile friendly live betting platform. With the new upgrade they implemented the ability to watch live streams of the most popular events.

The live streams are currently only available for iPad, iPhone and Android users but we expect the new platform to become compatible with other smartphones and tablets as well.

For iPad, iPhone and Android users this means that you are now able to watch sporting events live as they happen on your mobile device and at the same time place wagers on these events. This is a huge step forward for the live betting industry where Bet365 have been setting the standards for the last few years.

Mobile sports betting and gambling in general is becoming extremely popular and in a couple of years time it’s expected that more people will be placing bets on their phones and tablets than on their laptops and desktops. With this recent addition of a live stream it’s safe to assume that more and more people will be moving over to mobile sports betting.

All the clients need to do in order to get access to the live streams at Bet365 is to create an account and make a deposit. There are no requirements on how much the customer will need to deposit in order to get access to the streams so the way it is now a minimum deposit is enough to get access to the streams. The clients will keep having access to the streams as long as they still have money in their accounts (no lower limit).

Some of you might remember when the online casino Buzzluck.com launched back in 2009. It was meant to be a big deal as they were offering something completely new with a 3D lobby where you could interact with other players. It turned out to be a pretty big failure though and they closed their doors in 2010. The website was taken down and the site was dormant until 2 months ago when the very reputable and respected Club World Group took over the brand and re-launched it.

Since the Club World Group have taken over the Buzzluck.com casino it has become something of an instant hit with loads of players signing up to try out their brand new gaming platform where you will find loads of online slots game that you have never seen before.

At the moment new players signing up at Buzzluck are offered a 100% bonus up to $868 which has a very generous clearing requirement of only 25 times to deposit and bonus amount. Compared to many other online casinos where the clearing rate is sometimes as much as 100x this bonus is very attractive.

Even US players are able to sign up and play for real money at the re-launched Buzzluck.com website and according to several reports on various forums the payment processing works like a charm when they have been withdrawing their winnings.

Below you will be able to try out the popular game called “Mister Money” for free without having to make a deposit.

For the last few weeks the online slots world has been buzzing about the ever growing Mega Fortune progressive slots jackpot. After  a long wait someone finally managed to win this jackpot and it was the online casino over at Betsson that were lucky enough to hand out this win to a 20-year old Norwegian guy.

According to the Betsson website this enormous jackpot was won using a free spin promotional offer so this guy managed to win the huge jackpot without even risking any of his own money. It will be interesting to see what he is planning to do with his new found fortune. The people over at Betsson have offered to provide him with financial advisers and it seems he will be taking them up on that offer.

You can learn more about this Mega Fortune jackpot win by watching this semi-awkward YouTube video by Betsson:

Have you ever thought about trying out the live roulette games at the Ladbrokes live dealer casino? Now is the perfect time to put that plan into motion and make a real money deposit at the Ladbrokes live casino as they are offering a guaranteed cashback of 10% with an additional 5% cashback being paid out depending on the outcome in the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

All you need to do in order to take part of this special live casino cashback deal is to head over to the Ladbrokes website and a make a real money deposit of at least GBP 200. Once you have made your deposit you will be eligible for a 10% cashback deal on all your potential losses on days when England is playing a game in the Rugby World Cup. If England wins their game on the day you are playing live online roulette you will get another 5% cashback making it a total of 15%.

This is by far the best bonus and cashback deal that you can find at any live dealer casino at the moment. Getting 15% back if you make a loss and without having to give any of your winnings back if you win is a really good deal.

In the recent months the online gaming industry has seen a huge increase in the interested for so called 3D online slots games. These are online slot machines with a very detailed storyline and as you are playing you will be able to unlock special features and bonus games that are played out in a 3D environment.

Most of these 3D slots games do not require special 3D glasses and you could argue that they aren’t really 3D at all but rather a pimped up version of the old versions of 2D slots. The casino software provider Microgaming have taken it a step further though and launched a full scale 3D slot machine which does require 3D glasses (which are usually provided by the online casino for free upon your first deposit). The most popular of these 3D slots games is called “Sterling Silver” and you can see the features of the game in the YouTube video I have embedded below.

3D Slots for US Players

Until very recently there were no good alternatives for US casino players looking to play 3D slots games. But as the US friendly online sportsbook BetOnline started offering 3D slots powered by BetSoft there is now a safe and legal way to try out these games even if you are living in the USA. At this online casino and sportsbook you will be able to play 3D slot machines for real money by depositing with your credit card.

Why Play 3D Slots?

It’s very simple really. If you are looking to try the new breed of slot machines you should definitely be playing 3D slots. The storylines that run throughout these games are very interesting and will keep you entertained for several hours. Another reason to play 3D slots is the high payout percentages. I don’t have the exact numbers but I’m certain it’s well over 95% payouts to the players.

The Downside of 3D Slots

The only real downside with these games is that they don’t feature any progressive jackpots which is needed to get that big score everyone is dreaming of. If you are looking for a slot machine that offers 6 or 7 figure payouts then 3D slots is not for you.

It’s not very often that we bring up anything related to online casino gaming here at PuntersHero.com but today I came across a special bonus offer that I just had to share with you. In the last couple of months the market for live dealer casinos has been booming and roulette, blackjack and baccarat players now seem to prefer the live dealer games rather than the old random number generated games.

When it comes to trying out something new it’s always nice to be able to do so without having to make any deposit and risking your own hard earned money. Why should you fund an account when you don’t even know if this type of online casino is the right fit for you? At the live gaming site Casino770 you won’t have to make any kind of deposit in order to try out their casino games with real dealers. All you have to do in order to start playing with real money is to create an account and you will get £7.70 worth of real money to use at the live casino tables. These funds can be used to try out the live blackjack, live roulette and live baccarat games so there is something on offer for everyone.

To get started you will need to follow these steps:

Step 1: Click here to create your account at Casino770.

Step 2: Send an email to promos@games770.com with the subject line “£7.70 for free LIVE” and state your username.

Step 3: Sit back and wait. Your free money will arrive within the next 24 hours.

It’s really that simple to start playing the live dealer casino games at Casino 770 without making any deposit. Should you like the games (and I’m sure you will) then you can obviously make a deposit and take advantage of their 100% bonus up to £100.

In the Youtube video below you can see how the live dealer blackjack games work at another live online casino.

The new Tikal Treasure online slot game available at Slotland has proved to be a very lucrative game taking players to ancient Mayan temples where ancient treasures await. Through June 12th, Slotland is awarding a free $15 chip to anyone who wishes to try out this wonderful new online slot game.

This five-reel, 25-payline slot game is the latest slot at Slotland and is full of vibrant graphics and thrilling sound effects, and most importantly, a six-figure jackpot.

Fashioned after the capital of one of the strongest kingdoms of ancient civilization—Maya, Tikal Treasure displays the distinctive carvings that ancient Mayans carved on their temples. In this slot game, you will see stone masks, sun gods, Mayan astrology symbols, and Mayan cats.

The head of a Mayan totem pole serves as the Wild symbol in Tikal Treasure, and when it lands on a reel, it animates into a symbol that covers the entire reel, applying it to all three rows.

In order to progress to the Bonus Round, you must accumulate orange stone balls that drop automatically collect into receptacles below when you land one on the reels. Once you’ve collected five orange balls, you will trigger the Bonus Round. Once there, your goal is to make a horizontal, diagonal, or vertical winning line containing three or more like symbols adjacent to each other. You will also have five shots at destroying the blocks on the reels that make other blocks drop down and replace it. Three or more like symbols on a line pays off.

Just like all Slotland online slots, Tikal Treasure is connected with the progressive jackpot that pays out pretty regularly. The Mayan god Quetzalcoatl is the giver of life, and when you get 5 Quetzalcoatl symbols in a row with a $20 minimum bet, you’ll win the jackpot, which is of now is at least $50,000.

Reports are circulating the web that Merge Network will be temporarily disabling registration for new US players. Apparently, this is being done in an effort to allow payment processing issues to be fixed and ease support backlog. While already registered players residing in the US will be able to continue playing on the Merge Network (Carbon Poker, Lock Poker, RPM Poker, Felt Stars Poker-formerly Reefer Poker, Hero Poker), but no new signups will be accepted after Friday, June 3rd, 2011, though this is supposedly temporary.

This is just another drop in the bucket for the decline of US online poker, as the past seven weeks have not been its best. Prior to April 15th, 2011 will be forever referred to as the “hay day” when online poker accounts flowed freely to US players. Now most of the US poker sites have either withdrawn from the US market on their own accord or have been shut down by the US Department of Justice. And then of course, UseMyWallet shut down, and then Merge Network put an end to their rakeback deal on the first of June.

Now, Merge poker sites will temporarily back out of the US market, a move that they assure is not permanent, but they cannot predict a date that they will once again start taking new US signups. The only thing they can promise is that it will not affect current US players or current non-US players (or future non-US players for that matter). So, the best thing to do for those players who do not already have an account at one of the Merge Network skins is to sign up NOW! That way you’ll have an account just in case in the future, it’s the only last option for US players, which it seems to be very close to that point already.

Because rakeback was ended yesterday, a rush of new players signed up. Now the same thing will inevitably happen with this new announcement, but as soon as they get everything caught up, they say they will open back up. You can’t help but wonder though if all of this is just part of a bigger plan in a strategic effort to evade the DOJ. However, since Black Friday, the Merge Network has reportedly grown by 76%, so it makes sense that they would need to regroup after so many new players have joined the network.

After tomorrow, the only remaining online poker networks still accepting new US players will be many skins on the Yatahay Network (obviously not Doyles Room), Cake Network, Everleaf Gaming Network, and Bodog.

Everleaf Gaming Network skins include No Bad Beats, Landshark Poker, Poker4Ever, Timeless Poker, Luvin Poker, PokerView, Minted Poker, and many others. This is one of the smallest poker networks, but it has a lot of skins. It may end up getting a lot of new US poker players if it stays in the game and stays under the radar of the US government long enough for regulation to go into effect, if and when it’s passed.

Cake Poker Network and Yatahay may or may not be next on the list of hits by the DOJ. Only time will tell, and right now there are a lot of unknowns regarding the future of online poker.