Social gaming operator Zynga turned a profit in 2017, the first time it has accomplished that feat since 2010.

Late last week, Zynga reported revenue of $233.3m in the three months ending December 31, 2017, a 22% year-on-year improvement and a new quarterly record. Zynga also posted a $12.9m profit versus a $35.4m loss in Q4 2016, extending its profit streak to three consecutive quarters.

For the year as a whole, revenue was up 16% to $861.4m, while net income came in at $26.6m, a year-on-year improvement of nearly $135m. It’s the first time since Zynga went public in 2010 that the company has ended a year in the black.

The gains are due to a combination of factors, including the company’s successful transition to a mobile-first company, an area that was once the company’s Achilles heel. Mobile revenue was up 29% in 2017, with mobile’s share of overall revenue rising nine points to 86%. Cost controls also played a role, as Zynga managed to cut operating expenses from 83% of revenue in 2016 to just 67% last year.

The Primorye gaming zone in Russia’s far east has decided against hiking gambling taxes for fear of deterring future investment by international casino operators.

Late last year, Russia approved plans to allow each of Russia’s designated casino zones to double the fixed monthly taxes on gaming tables and slot machines, which vary from zone to zone. Most of these gaming zones have since taken advantage of this opportunity to top up their tax coffers.

This week, the government of the Primorsky territory announced that it had decided to maintain its gambling taxes at their current rates of RUB125k (US$2,170) for each gaming table and RUB7.5k ($130) for each electronic gaming machine.

Government officials explained their decision to stand pat as a means to attract further international casino investment to the Primorye gaming zone. At present, Primorye has one working casino – Tigre de Cristal – and two in-development projects by Russian operator Diamond Fortune Holdings and Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp.

Partypoker has released the schedule for the first-ever MILLIONS Grand Final, and it promises to be the biggest live tournament ever held on European soil.

So, partypoker like guarantees. Well, I have one for them. The MILLIONS Grand Final in Barcelona will smash every target they create.

In a week that saw PokerStars continue to play around with their live tournament format with the cancellation of the Chilean leg of the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), partypoker reacts by releasing one of the most ambitious live poker schedules in history.

7 – 15 April, Casino Barcelona.

Joey Ingram continues to apply pressure on the owners of the Winning Poker Network and America’s Cardroom after releasing two more videos alleging widespread cheating on the site.

The wings of the Winning Poker Network (WPN) and America’s Cardroom (ACR) are crippled. The size elevens of Joey Ingram stands on them, crunching those smokey bones. Cat meat. Accusations of sleeper cells, collusion, super users and widespread bot use make them sound more like a terrorist organisation than a form of entertainment.

The scent of murder hangs in the air, and yet, despite the carnage that we witness thanks to the Sherlock Holmes deductive reasoning of Joey Ingram; despite cheating scandals popping up like rockets bathing the poker communities awareness in a brilliant light, people will still carry on regardless.

Last week, Ingram posted an 18-minute video alleging rampant cheating across all games on ACR. The award-winning podcast host promised a follow-up video.

Macau’s casino junket operator market continues to be a case of the rich getting richer, and the poor getting, er, golder.

On Tuesday, the Tak Chun Group junket announced that it had opened VIP gaming operations at Sands China’s Plaza Macao casino. The new VIP club, which features 12 tables spread across four separate rooms, will have its official grand opening on February 25.

The Plaza Macao launch brings Tak Chun’s Macau presence to 15 different VIP clubs and more are in the offing. While Tak Chun is playing coy about its future Macau plans, the operator is one of five junkets that are scheduled to eventually launch VIP gaming at MGM China’s new MGM Cotai, which officially opened its doors to the public on Tuesday.

Like many of its leading Macau junket peers, Tak Chun has ambitions in other Asia-Pacific casino markets, including South Korea and the Philippines, and hopes to expand into Vietnam when some of that country’s in-development resort casinos come to fruition.

Online gambling operator Kindred Group has launched a new Romanian brand and resumed its Australian television advertising pitches after a two-year absence.

The Stockholm-listed Kindred Group’s flagship Unibet brand was among the first operators to receive a Romanian license after the country liberalized its online regime in 2015. On Tuesday, Kindred announced the launch of VladCazino, the company’s first dedicated online casino for the Romanian market.

The in-house developed VladCazino features vampire imagery, playing up on Romania’s association with Vlad the Impaler aka Dracula. Kindred’s chief commercial officer Ebba Ljungerud said Kindred sought to “always stay close to our customers” and the new site offered Romanian gamblers “a product and experience truly tailored to their needs.”

As one brand launches, another brand dies. Last October, Kindred announced that its Stan James Online brand would be consigned to mothballs at some unspecified future date and its players would be migrated to Unibet. Last week, a Unibet rep told the TwoPlusTwo forum that the forced migration was “expected in the next month or so.”

GVC Holdings flagship poker brand PartyPoker is making plans to launch its European Union cross-border liquidity pool, although players in those four regulated markets will have to wait another few months (at least).

Last week, the official PartyPoker Representative informed the TwoPlusTwo poker forum that the brand would launch its cross-border liquidity pool “in the coming months.” The apparent plan is to start by linking PartyPoker’s French- and Spanish-licensed sites, but will “likely” extend to Italy and Portugal in due course.

Last July, gaming regulators in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain agreed on a framework to allow their online poker licensees to pool their players. To date, only The Stars Group’s PokerStars brand has launched cross-border pooling between its French and Spanish sites, but French operator Winamax is working feverishly to launch similar cross-border operations.

The PartyPoker rep had no further specifics on timelines, but did say the shared liquidity pool “will be country-specific and will not be open to .com players.” PokerStars is allowing players from other markets to join the pool via its Spanish site provided they don’t hail from a market that has enacted its own online gambling legislation.