Article Excerpt 
 
 As Congress debates the federal budget, a Democratic senator strongly backed by Nevada casino interests and a Republican senator staunchly opposed to betting are working together to push an online-gambling bill into the mix. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl are seeking language in a legislative package during the lame-duck session that could expand some forms of online wagering and would limit others. Among other things, the bill would create an Office of Online Poker Oversight under the Department of Commerce. 
 
 The initiative has long been discussed behind closed doors but never publicly introduced. It ... ||||| UK-based online gambling holding Gamesys has launched a new Facebook app called ‘Bingo Friendzy’, the first to hit the social network’s App Center that lets UK users aged 18 and over to play an online game for real cash prizes. 
 
 We knew this was coming, but now the wait is over. 
 
 Gamesys, which operates the UK’s leading Bingo and Slots website Jackpotjoy.com, says the new Friendzy App comes with a series of 90 Ball Bingo and Slots games that enable adult Facebook users in the UK to play for real cash. 
 
 Comments Julien Codorniou, Facebook’s Head of EMEA Gaming Partnerships: 
 
 “People love playing new types of games with their friends on Facebook and real money gaming is a popular leisure activity in the UK. We’re delighted to be working with Gamesys to enable them to offer their games on Facebook so that people can enjoy playing more games with their friends.” 
 
 Facebook has effectively partnered with Gamesys to fuel the distribution of the new game on the social networking service, and plans to team up with more gambling companies in the future. 
 
 Gamesys says a series of controls should protect users under 18 years of age, as well as “vulnerable people”. Also, in line with gambling legislation, all users will have access to a number of self-help tools to limit their spending and exclude themselves from playing at anytime. 
 
 Zynga, Facebook’s largest gaming partner by a margin, is also planning to venture into the real-money online gambling space in the near future. 
 
 And who knows, maybe some day this will become legal in the US (it will, eventually). 
 
 Also read: 
 
 What happens when professional gambling meets social gaming 
 
 Zynga is “all in” to acquire Bwin.party-owned poker business Ongame: Report 
 
 Read next: Calling on steroids: Korea's SK Telecom to launch world's first HD voice over LTE service ||||| This undated image provided by 20th Century Fox shows actors Ben Affleck, right, and Justin Timberlake during a scene from the film "Runner, Runner." The American Gambling Association has bought ads on... (Associated Press) 
 
 This undated image provided by 20th Century Fox shows actors Ben Affleck, right, and Justin Timberlake during a scene from the film "Runner, Runner." The American Gambling Association has bought ads on... (Associated Press) 
 
 The thriller "Runner Runner" starring Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck hasn't even opened yet, but it's already in the center of the fight over online gambling regulation. 
 
 The American Gambling Association has bought ads on major websites including Twitter, Facebook and the IMDb movie database framing the film as a "cautionary tale" that points to the need for Congress to legalize online poker. The ads also pop up when people Google the movie's title. 
 
 The screenwriters have said their story of a young gambler pulled into the criminal dealings of an offshore poker site was never intended as a political parable. The movie is scheduled to open later Thursday. 
 
 The Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation, a national nonprofit, sent a letter to the casino lobby Thursday pointing to the writers' comments, and calling the ads dishonest. The group is demanding that the ads _ one of which warns, "sometimes movie villains are real" _ be taken down. 
 
 National director Les Bernal wrote that there was no reason to think shady offshore operations would disappear if online gambling was legalized in The U.S. and accused the casino lobby of wanting a cut of the illegal operators' business. 
 
 "Casino operators now hope to expand another key demographic to their base: young people, especially those of college age, which is why the AGA greedily seized upon `Runner, Runner,'" Bernal wrote. 
 
 Internet poker, never fully legal, has been strictly outlawed since 2011, when the Department of Justice seized the domain names of the largest offshore sites catering to U.S. customers and blacked them out. 
 
 This crackdown, dubbed "black Friday," left poker fanatics with two options: Get dressed and visit a card room, or break the law and log into an offshore site. 
 
 Offshore gambling sites took in roughly $2.6 billion from U.S. players last year, according to Geoff Freeman, president of the association. 
 
 More recently, the federal government softened its stance on Internet betting, and three states _ New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada _ legalized some form of online wagering within their borders. 
 
 The gambling lobby, which counts MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment among its members, supports a federal approach. It warns that a patchwork of state laws will be unworkable for corporations and could leave gamblers exposed to dishonest dealings. 
 
 The lobby is seizing any opportunity to try to jumpstart stalled federal legislation. 
 
 "Washington is changing, and how you share your message in Washington is changing," Freeman said. "You've got to break through the clutter." 
 
 Freeman dismissed the predatory gambling group's complaint. He said online gambling empires like the one depicted in the movie often fail to verify gamblers' ages and locations, and they offer no guarantee they're playing fair. 
 
 "Runner Runner," released by Twentieth Century Fox, tells the story of a Princeton University graduate student, played by Timberlake, who believes he's been cheated after gambling away his tuition money. He travels to Costa Rica to stick it to an online poker tycoon, played by Affleck, who then offers him a job. 
 
 Writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman, who also created the 1998 gambling classic "Rounders," told Reuters that they were surprised by the casino lobby's campaign and found it amusing. 
 
 Early reviews have been mostly negative. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier .
– Papa needs a new pair of … cows? Zynga yesterday filed the first salvo of paperwork necessary to obtain an online gambling license in Nevada, the Wall Street Journal reports. But don't expect to be betting on Farmville (or more likely titles like Zynga Poker) anytime soon. The document filed yesterday was a request for the state to decide if Zynga is even potentially suitable for a license, and that decision alone is expected to take 12 to 18 months. It's unclear how long after that final approval would come. The move comes amidst a rapidly changing legal landscape around online gambling. Nevada became the first state to legalize online poker earlier this year. Though it has handed out a few licenses already, none of the companies' online poker games is up and running yet. And when they are, they'll be limited to state residents. But that could soon change: Harry Reid and Jon Kyl are working on a bill that would legalize online poker nationwide and even create an Office of Online Poker Oversight, the Journal reported yesterday. However, the bill would simultaneously ban most other forms of online gambling.