The Washington State Gambling Commission has tweeted that it has been receiving questions about free play poker sites, such as PokerStars, denying access to state residents. A recent ruling by Ninth Circuit of U.S. Court of Appeals stated that social casino games are illegal under the State of Washington’s existing gambling laws. It began back in 2015 after a woman lost over $1,000 in virtual chips. She sued Churchill Downs, the then-parent company of Big Fish Casino over the loss. Under Washington law, gambling is “risking something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance.” It all boils…

The great investment thesis behind Zynga was that it would eventually turn its play-money Zynga Poker game into a wildly lucrative online poker business, rivaling even the most established players in gaming. There was a time when an idea like that wasn’t too far-fetched. Zynga Poker has around 36 million users every month on Facebook with around 6 million of those on the site every day. The problem is that online poker isn’t legal here in the U.S., so this huge user base hasn’t translated to a significant profit. First-quarter revenue dropped 18% and the fickle nature of online-game players has…

A few years ago, declining a FarmVille request on Facebook or not knowing of Restaurant Story was akin to committing social harakiri. That no longer seems to be the case. Figures from metrics tracking firm SuperData, which were out recently, reveal that social gaming is on the decline. Their data shows that the total number of monthly active social gamers have dropped below 200 million for the first time in over a year, down by 10 million users in March in comparison to February. It even noted that revenues from social gaming had fallen. Almost on cue, Electronic Arts (EA)…