Zynga’s crusade to maintain the leading spot in the social gaming market has seen an app released for Google TV. The soon-to-be public firm released the uber popular Texas HoldEm poker game for Google’s TV set-top box in the aim of cracking even more of the market. The game, which has around 30 million active users every month, said that the Google TV version is “especially optimized for playing poker from the comfort of your own couch.” Zynga’s Texas HoldEm free-play poker game shot to fame on Facebook and despite denying they’re interested in real-money play they’ll be very interested in any changes, if any, Facebook makes to gambling industry rules.
Churchill Downs’s (CDI) online wagering service is facing a halt to its service in two states due to a long-running dispute. TwinSpires.com, the firm’s online horse wagering site, sees its license expire in California and Illinois before the year ends and withholding payment from The Jockeys’ Guild could delay the process. CDI have refused to pay the Guild due to reservations over certain payments. They are only willing to make the payments if money is directly benefiting jockeys and they’re not paying anymore than other racetracks.
Alan Tse, executive vice president at CDI, commented: “It’s time to turn the focus of this discussion to where it belongs — the Guild’s management team, the real motives behind its recent actions, and whether the Guild has kept its promises to both jockeys and racetracks.”
Tse added that they spend over $2.5million every year on programs benefitting jockeys at its tracks plus injury insurance that pays $1million per incident. The Guild wants to know exactly how the $2.5m is spent and commented that CDI has already stated that negotiations won’t be renewed. It’s in CDI’s interest to get this sorted soon as online already accounts for 23% of its revenues.
