It would appear that Zynga has launched a website dedicated to gambling, as the domain name “zyngambler.com” was registered yesterday, August 27^th. The original site to post the news, Fusible, took down their story, however before this happened Games.com had already made their post.

Where this story starts to become interesting is when you look at the actual Zyngambler page itself (screencapped above). At the top one can see the Zynga Poker logo, however further down the page we leave all semblances of a gambling website as the page turns into the website for a German design firm called Crunchy, a “simply awesome design studio with class.” It really looks like Crunchy is a made-up company, as all of the links and button on the site lead nowhere.

Digging a little deeper, we can find that the domain is registered to DNStination Inc., located in Suite 800 at 303 Second Street in San Francisco, CA. A quick search reveals this to be the one of the executive offices of MarkMonitor, which bills itself as brand protection in the digital world. While no definitive conclusion can be drawn here, it would seem that MarkMonitor may be working on behalf of Zynga to hold the gambling related domain. If this is the case, why would the URL currently lead to a German design studio featuring the Zynga Poker logo?

There is definitely more here than meets the eye. Chipist will keep you updated with the latest as this story develops.