Playboy.com Ups the Stakes

Playboy.com, a majority-owned subsidiary of Chicago-based Playboy Enterprises, Inc. is betting that gambling on the Web can provide a solid chunk of dough to make up for the softness of the advertising market. PlayboyCasino, part of a technology partnership with Ladbrokes eGaming Limited, joins a stable of gambling sites on the portal, including sports wagering site PlayboySportsBook.com, pari-mutuel horseracing site PlayboyRacingUSA.com and Play4Fun.com, a site which offers branded free games including fantasy sports leagues and the popular Playmate strip poker. To lure users into the PlayboyCasino, the company said it would allow newbies to play with 1,000 free demo chips. After that, the plan is to hook them to sign up to try their luck with real greenbacks. The site's interface includes realistic sound effects and graphics that attempts to give the look and feel of a real casino. It offers more than 50 casino games, including roulette, blackjack, stud poker, baccarat, Sic Bo and craps and video poker and 3-reel slots games. On the site, the company said it would give away free PlayboyCasino.com CD ROM via mail and would set up installationsto desktops through a 7.3 MB download, or played via Flash interface.