The Los Angeles-based company has not raised institutional funding yet, but is backed by its founders along with Brody Jenner, stepbrother to Kim Kardashian and son of Olympic decathlete Bruce Jenner (see right).

Jenner has already been busy hyping RocketFrog on his official Facebook fan page, which has more than 58,000 likes, by asking fans to join him in poker tournaments for the chance to win $5 Amazon gift cards.

Additionally, the company said that Myspace founder Tom Anderson will join RocketFrog’s advisory board.

Besides its star-studded alliances, the company’s free-to-play Facebook game stands apart from other casino-based games because it allows players to win a variety of prizes, ranging from movie tickets to music, food and more.

Games include blackjack, slots, roulette, deuces wild and video poker, and prizes during the game’s first month include brands such as Creative Recreation, Steve Angello of Swedish House Mafia, Young and Reckless, World of Dance, Abbey Dawn by Avril Lavigne and Paul Oakenfold.

Many companies are scrambling to gain large casino audiences on Facebook now that it appears that online gambling will become legal in the U.S.

Late last year, the Department of Justice issued a new interpretation of the Wire Act of 1961. Under the new ruling, it interprets the act as only outlawing betting on sporting events — not all events and contests. With that clarification in place, it will now be up to each state to pass legislation outlining operating procedures.

A few companies, such as IGT, Zynga and Caesars Interactive, have already started to get ready and a few states have already passed laws.

RocketFrog’s founder Brett Calapp was previously the CEO and co-founder of Centaurus Games, a subscription-based gaming network that sold to PartyGaming in 2010. He was also the president of the Ultimate Blackjack Tour, an international gambling tour, online game network and hit television show on CBS.

In a speech to college musicians, Mr. McBride said smartphone apps “will radically change the business.” Apps are computer programs for smart phones such as those Apple (AAPL) provides for the iPhone. Upcoming smartphones from companies like Research In Motion (RIMM), maker of the BlackBerry, are likely to create new business models, he said. He was speaking in Boston in a lecture series on music management at Berklee College of Music, a 4,000-student college.

Mr. McBride is CEO of Vancouver-based Nettwerk Music Group, which manages Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies and Sarah MacLachlan, among other artists. He said he anticipates that many music lovers will start to access smartphone apps like Slacker.com’s subscription-radio service.

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[UPDATE: Negotiations between YouTube and music labels are already getting unpleasant: Warner Music's clips are disappearing from the site, and both sides are taking credit for the move.]

Universal Music Group officials told CNET this week that they’re going to make close to $100 million from Internet videos this year–an 80 percent increase–and that most of that will come from Google’s (GOOG) YouTube.

I believe that may be possible–in part because people close to Universal Music Group told me the same thing earlier this year. But I think that those YouTube dollars may not continue to increase at the same rate, whether it’s for Universal or any music label.

That’s because YouTube’s current arrangement with the labels is a money-losing one, people familiar with the company tell me. And that’s unlikely to continue as the company renegotiates its deals with the four major labels–UMG, EMI, Sony (SNE) and Warner Music Group (WMG)–which expire throughout next year.

Here’s how the current deals work: Whenever someone clicks on an official video that’s been sanctioned by the labels, YouTube has to pay the labels either a per-stream fee or a share of ad revenue associated with the clip, whichever is greater. Since YouTube is just beginning to get serious about selling ads next to its content, it’s usually paying the per-stream fee, which industry executives peg at about half a penny per clip.

That kind of deal might have been OK during Google’s go-go days, but it’s unlikely to fly now. And as Google execs start sitting down with the labels, it’s reasonable to think they’ve got much more leverage. While music videos are some of the site’s most popular programming–look at how many label-sponsored clips like Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” are among the site’s most popular offerings of all time–Google doesn’t need their blessing in the way that YouTube did when it was still transitioning from rogue copyright violator to upstanding citizen.

Meanwhile the labels are under great pressure to dig up dollars wherever they can find them because their core CD business evaporates day by day. Universal Music recorded some $4.4 billion in revenue during the first nine months of this year, so $100 million in high-margin video revenue would be a meaningful contribution to the bottom line. But it may be harder to get in 2009 than it was this year.

I can’t show you most of YouTube’s most popular clips here–the site disables embeds for those. But here’s a less-viewed one I do like.