iGaming Business – The value of Bitcoin has again topped $1,000 (€743.4) after social gaming company Zynga announced it would start accepting the virtual currency as a payment option for gamers that buy tokens for virtual goods. According to the BBC, the move from Zynga comes shortly after Android-based video games console-maker Ouya began accepting Bitcoin payments last month. The Humble Bumble organisation that sells a changing selection of indie games also began accepting the virtual currency in 2013. The Zynga Bitcoin test will be available on the online versions of social games FarmVille 2, CastleVille, ChefVille, CoasterVille, Hidden Chronicles,…

Press of Atlantic City – David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, said in an interview that the original total of players for Internet gambling programs was more than 50,000. As of this past Monday, that number has increased by 3,000 daily, for a total of 71,000. The majority of them are from near the borders of New York state and Pennsylvania, Rebuck said in the interview, which will be broadcast at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 21, on WMGM-TV 40. He also noted that there were thousands more who attempted to play but couldn’t because they…

iGaming Business – Oliver Fröhlich, owner of bookmaker HappyBet, has reportedly been shot and killed at the company’s Frankfurt office in Germany. According to German newspaper Bild, Fröhlich was shot several times in the head on Friday shortly after getting out of a BMW outside his office in the Sachsenhausen district of Frankfurt. A resident alerted the emergency services, but Fröhlich was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said that although a special unit had discovered several shell casings at the site, they were unable to find a murder weapon. Fröhlich had reportedly been due to meet an unnamed customer around…

Tulsa World – The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribe is betting on the outcome of a federal lawsuit to re-establish its Internet gambling website. The tribe, based in Concho, north of El Reno, wants to operate pokertribes.com with international players, which the state agreed to under its gaming compact. But the U.S. Department of the Interior put a stop to it last month. The site is currently inactive. The tribe filed the lawsuit Thursday in federal court in Oklahoma City, asking a judge to prevent the Department of the Interior from interfering. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Kevin Washburn, assistant secretary…

Tribal gaming in Wisconsin is looking for revenue sources. The Lac du Flambeau Chippewa’s online payday loan centers are there for you. Want to place an online bet? The tribe soon hopes to handle that for you as well. Three years after the Lac du Flambeau defaulted on a $50 million bond — a move that remains the subject of a court fight — and five years after it considered mortgaging portions of its reservation, the Vilas County tribe is aggressively looking at the Internet for ways to increase its revenue. Tom Maulson, the tribe’s blunt-talking president, dismisses critics who…

iGaming Business – Eric Hollreiser, head of corporate communications at online poker operator PokerStars, remains ‘confident’ about what the company can achieve in the US market in 2014 despite having suffered a number of disappointments in the last year. One of the main goals of Pokerstars in 2013 was to launch an online gambling service in the recently regulated US state of New Jersey. However, as reported by iGaming Business, the firm had its application suspended for two years by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement due to ongoing concerns surrounding the company’s founder, Isai Scheinberg. In addition, PokerStars…