Playboy Gaming Calling it Quits

Playboy Gaming, the parent company of Playboy Poker issued a customer service email Wednesday announcing it would be shutting its doors as of January 29th.  The email read in part, “I can confirm that Playboy Gaming will no longer have a poker site and will not be moving to another network.”  So far, there has been no mention of a shut down on Playboy Poker’s website.  It is still listed as a site on the CryptoLogic Network and has no apparent plans to jump ship to another group of sites.

Playboy Gaming added a casino to its offerings in 2007 and was set apart from other sites by its Rewards Club.  Player points could be used for a variety of experiences including lunch with Playboy Playmates and Bunnies, a party at the Playboy Mansion in California and a trip to the Playboy Club in Las Vegas amongst others.  Player points could also be used to purchase Playboy merchandise and poker paraphernalia.  The site takes its name from the popular men’s magazine and adult film company founded by Hugh Hefner.

The shutdown was confirmed with a source at CryptoLogic who said the reason for the closure was that the site "“just didn’t do as well financially as we had hoped. The response to the Playboy brand wasn’t as great as we hoped.”  The Playboy brand is very well known in the United States though outside the US, its name takes on a different meaning.  The passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in the United States sent most Online Poker sites racing from the market including sites like Playboy Gaming who lost their target audience as a result.  The online Poker Room will encourage its customers to head to InterPoker and InterCasino.