In Washington State, class action lawsuits have been filed against four social gaming sites in which the operators are alleged to have violated state law by charging customers to compete in play money casino games. Those followed suit on a case against online site Big Fish Casino that had been initially dismissed back in 2015 when filed by a player, but was then overturned by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in March. Cheryl Kater, a customer of Big Fish Casino, filed a lawsuit against the social casino in 2015, claiming she paid for play money chips which, of course,…

From Las Vegas Review Journal The Empire put a hit on the Mafia and buried the farm. Two years after Caesars Entertainment Corp. perplexed Wall Street by acquiring social gaming operation Playtika, the casino giant has moved past rival Zynga Inc. to the top of the business model. Social casino games are free to play on the Internet, through Facebook and other platforms. Customers have the option of paying a nominal fee — often less than $1 — to acquire thousands of gaming tokens to increase their virtual bankroll. Apparently, those pennies add up. One Wall Street analyst estimated social…

Caesars Interactive Entertainment has toppled Zynga as the No. 1 publisher of social casino games, according to a report by research firm Eilers Research. That shows that the social casino game market, which is now worth $1.2 billion worldwide, is becoming a lot more competitive thanks to growth in demand, increased startup activity, and a series of high-profile acquisitions. Caesars is one of the world’s largest legal gambling companies. It acquired Israel’s Playtika in 2011 and picked up popular social games such as Slotomania. Now, that title as well as Slotomania Adventures, Bingo Blitz (acquired with the purchase of Buffalo…

A design studio founded by a longtime slot machine industry veteran has been acquired by social gaming giant Zynga, which is seeking an avenue into Nevada’s gaming market. San Francisco-based Zynga, developer of “Farmville,” “Words With Friends,” and other freeplay social games, did not disclose a purchase price for Spooky Cool Labs. The 40-person game studio, which is based in Chicago, focuses on developing social casino games. Spooky Cool Labs was founded by veteran slot machine designer Joe Kaminkow, who spent more than a two decades with International Game Technology, developing some of the casino industry’s best performing slot machine…

From iGaming Business Eight leading social games companies including Plumbee Limited and Zynga Incorporated have joined forces to officially launch the International Social Games Coalition. The International Social Games Coalition was first informally premiered in April at a meeting in San Francisco and stated that it will now showcase the industry’s work and ‘educate people about free-to-play games on the Internet’. “The social games industry is at the heart of our emerging digital economy, so as it continues to grow it is essential that the sector has a collective voice,” said Luc Delaney, a former senior executive with Facebook and…