Zynga, the world’s preeminent social gaming developer, launched its first real money online gambling sites on Wednesday. ZyngaPlusPokerand ZyngaPlusCasinowent live for players in the United Kingdom using the bwin.party software platform. You can discuss the news in this forum thread.

While Zynga is best known for its social games on Facebook such as FarmVille, CityVille, and the extremely popular Zynga Poker, neither new gaming offering is on Facebook. Instead, both are their own sites, completely separate from the ubiquitous social media platform. ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino can be downloaded like any other poker and casino software or accessed via a web browser.

ZyngaPlusCasino is what one might expect from an online casino. Games include over 160 varieties of slots, including a FarmVille-themed slots game, blackjack, roulette, craps, and video poker.

ZyngaPlusPoker is likely of more interest to readers of this site. Before you go through the roof thinking there will be thousands upon thousands of the fishiest fish, remember that ZyngaPlusPoker is only for players in the U.K. And again, it is its own separate site and not linked to Facebook in any way. Thus, players are not going to simply log into Facebook, dial up ZyngaPlusPoker, and start playing for real money.

Not only does ZyngaPlusPoker use the bwin.party software, it is also now part of bwin.party’s poker network, which is headlined by PartyPokerand bwin. Players from PartyPoker and ZyngaPlusPoker will mingle at the same tables and the gaming experience will be the same for people on both skins. Funding accounts should be extremely easy as well, as ZyngaPlusPoker accepts Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and just about any other deposit method that online poker players already use on other sites.

On Zynga’s blog, the company’s Chief Revenue Officer Barry Cottle announced the launch, saying, “Our long-term vision is to offer our players the next generation of real money games on multiple platforms in regulated markets worldwide. We take responsible gaming seriously and are proud to partner with bwin.party, an industry leader and a reputable company that is fully licensed by a premier regulatory authority.”

Reaction to the launch of Zynga’s new real money gambling products has been mixed. While people were initially excited to hear that the world’s greatest fish tank was about to be exposed to real money online poker, enthusiasm was dampened when people realized it was just for the U.K. and there was no actual link to Zynga Poker.

In the Two Plus Two thread about the ZyngaPlusPoker launch, poster “woodys” wrote, “This whole thread is discussing a non-story basically, unless discussing the launch of a tiny new skin is thread-worthy. Just because it’s Zynga’s skin doesn’t means there’s going to be 20 million Facebook bums setting their dole on fire. Huge disappointment.”

“jukofyork” added, “FWIW, I can’t see any difference at all: just tables full of the same old East European nit-farmers as there always are and not much else… Perhaps it will take a while for more Zynga fish to find out, but overall I’m not expecting much… I can’t see why they would all suddenly want to play real money poker after resisting the constant bombardment of gambling commercials we’ve had here in the U.K. for the last 10+ years.”

Even with Zynga’s huge player base on Facebook, the launch isn’t likely to make a drastic impact on bwin.party’s traffic anytime soon. According to PokerScout, PartyPoker has a seven-day running average of 3,150 cash game players, placing it a distant second behind PokerStars and just ahead of the iPoker Network. That average is just about in line with what it has been for the last couple of weeks; it will probably be a while before any additions from ZyngaPlusPoker are reflected in PokerScout’s data.

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