With WSOP.com in play and in more poker players’ pockets, Zynga finds it tougher to bring players to their tables.

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 gaming is now worth $1.2 billion worldwide in annual revenues.

Caesars Interactive Entertainment, a subsidiary of the casino company that controls Playtika and the World Series of Poker, now owns a large chunk of that market.

Playtika’s Slotomania brand — slot machine and bingo-like games — is fueling the effort, which sent Zynga, owners of Farmville, Mafia Wars, Words with Friends, and a platform of casino games, including Zynga Poker, into second place.

“Social casino gaming has essentially gone from being a nonexistent sector a few years ago to one of the most popular gaming genres on desktop and mobile (devices),” Adam Krejcik, managing director of Eilers Research, recently wrote.

More…

photo: Samantha Clemens / Las Vegas Review-Journal

Life is about to get more complicated for Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber.

He wouldn’t have it any other way. With the World Series of Poker nearing the end of its six-week run at the Rio, Garber’s attention will focus on launching the tournament’s pay-to-play regulated online gaming website in Nevada.

Caesars Interactive — a Montreal-based subsidiary of casino operator Caesars Entertainment Corp. — is also moving forward with online gaming prospects in New Jersey. The casino operator owns one-fourth of the Atlantic City gaming market.

Garber’s division also handles Playtika, Caesars expanding free-play social gaming operation.

Meanwhile, Garber’s duties will soon include CEO of Caesars Growth Partners, an entity created by Caesars Entertainment as a growth oriented business.

Anything else?

More…

Caesars Interactive Entertainment announced it was forming a social poker development studio to expand the free-to-play World Series of Poker game through its Playtika division.

The Montreal-based subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment, which owns the World Series of Poker brand, will add a social gaming format of the tournament to its free-to-play slot machine, casino game and bingo franchises.

Caesars acquired Playtika a few years ago to expand its social gaming platform.

A Montreal-based team of 19 employees will form the core of Caesars Interactive’s studio. The plan is to expand and enhance the features and functionality of the current World Series of Poker game.

Playtika is responsible for all of Caesars Interactive’s social and mobile games assets.

Caesars Interactive acquired certain World Series of Poker game assets and intellectual property from Electronic Arts (EA).

Under the agreement, EA transferred global rights and ownership of its World Series of Poker game for mobile devices and Facebook to Caesars Interactive, ending a previous licensing agreement.

Financial terms of this transaction were not disclosed.

The future is all about real-money slot machines. That’s my not-so-new position and I’m sticking to it — especially after some intense battles of Words with Friends gave me a glimpse of who’s spending money to get slot customers.

Check it out … two competing ads currently appearing on Zynga’s free version of Words with Friends …

More…