Play social, casual games for cash in YooMee Games Arcade

Sure, you can play games like FrontierVille for Horseshoes, but how would you like to play for higher stakes? YooMee Games has launched its arcade platform of the same name where players can connect via Facebook and play adaptations of social and casual games for real cash money. Some of the launch games include established Facebook games like Bubble Town and classics like Pac Man and Frogger. All the while, the dollars just rack up, but there's a small catch.

By creating an account with Facebook Connect, you can immediately start playing games for cash through ongoing tournaments. However, you will have to make wagers to enter tournaments, which is where the prize money is drawn from. More players within a tournament means a higher cash pool, but it also means a higher chance of you losing to someone else. Wagers range from just $.50 to nearly $100, and the amount of potential gamers out there means those wagers could add up fast.

"More than fifty million people in the US are playing casual games online at least once a month, and they're spending more than $500 million per year on virtual goods and currencies," says YooMee Games CEO Prita Uppal. "YooMee is all about giving people a similar social gaming experience with the ability to win real-world cash and prizes."

Yoo Mee Games
But players don't earn cash or prizes directly. The arcade operates in a currency known simply as Gold, but it essentially represents American dollars. However, a player would have to turn in Tickets, another currency, for that cold hard cash. Tickets are earned through player wager games for Gold. Confused yet? I figured as much.

Basically, you will have to buy Gold with real cash via debit or credit before wagering it in tournaments. Then, winning high-stake tournaments will yield even more Gold and Tickets, which can be redeemed for cash and other prizes like digital cameras and iPod Touches. Sure, it all sounds like quite a gamble, but if you're the best Pac Man player you know it wouldn't hurt to give it a go.

[Source: The Next Web]

Would you be willing to bet on your Asteroids skills with the promise of real cash? Do you see this type of gaming platform taking off?

LA Times gets its game on with Mahjongg and more from Arkadium

Is it about time we trade in the paper's (literally) two-dimensional crossword puzzles for the depth of Mahjongg? The Los Angeles Times seems to be headed in that direction, as the news outlet announced a partnership with New York-based social game maker Arkadium. As a result, Arkadium has already thrown the lot of its hit games on the "Games" section of the LA Times website.

The Arkadium games available on the LA Times Games page include several of its varieties of Mahjongg (including Mahjongg Dimensions), Sparks, Monkey Gems and more. All of Arkadium's games on the LA Times are packed with Facebook and Twitter integration throughout, and the deal was made in hopes of increasing advertising revenue, according to the news organization.

"Given the ever-rising popularity of casual games, adding Arkadium's titles allows us to further engage latimes.com's users and entice previously untapped gaming enthusiasts to visit our site throughout the day," LA Times' VP for Digital Revenue Products Jennifer Collins said in a statement. "We are also creating a previously unavailable opportunity for our advertisers to reach Southern California's casual gaming audience and in the process establish another digital monetization platform."

It's interesting for a social games company to make such a move, and perhaps a terribly smart one. (This is the second of such deals Arkadium has made with a news organization; the first was CNN.) When you think about it, the majority of Arkadium's games cater to the same audience that enjoys crossword puzzles and the like. However, we'll see whether those "casual" gamers will be keen on making the leap from word searches to, say, Monkey Gems.

[Via Reuters]

Do you think Arkadium's deal with LA Times will prove successful? Which of the developer's games is your favorite?