Zynga Poker

Zynga poker is enjoyed by 25 million people every month, now it is being launched in Mandarin, however, it will not be accessible for players in China

The largest social networking website ever, Facebook, has poker fans all over the world hooked by their Zynga online poker game. Zynga is not played with real money, meaning everyone can play, and it offers a realistic online poker experience. It was launched back in 2007 and since then Zynga’s Texas Hold’em has been enjoyed by players from over 100 different countries across the globe with over 25 million players every month.

Facebook recently announced that they would soon be targeting Asian players with a version of Zynga poker in Mandarin. It will be available for players in Taiwan and Hong Kong and theoretically everywhere else across the continent. However, players in mainland China will find that they are not able to connect to Zynga and enjoy a game of online poker. Not only is Facebook banned by the Chinese government but they are also trying to prevent online gaming, even if there is no money involved.

As of August the first, sever new limitations on all forms of internet games were introduced into Chinese gambling laws. The new law says that “any morally questionable online games are illegal”. Whilst this restriction mainly applies to online gambling sites, it has also meant that there are changes in the legality regarding playing and accessing online video games. Officials think that teenagers are spending too much time playing games online, in order to counter this they have implemented ID checks and time limits which are aimed to bring down the amount of time spent playing.

Zynga poker is somewhere in between real gambling and purely for fun video gaming, as it is not played for real money it can’t really be compared to major sites such as William Hill Poker, it seems more suitable to place it alongside video games which involve fantasy role player. However, in China it has been grouped together with all other online gambling games. Nonetheless, there are ways around these harsh new rules, and poker players in China who wish to play online, for fun or real money, normally find a way simply by joining websites which are operated outside China even if they do so at their own risk, the Chinese government has already started prosecuting some online gamers.