Chicago- Playboy Enterprises Inc. is starting an online poker site, its second gaming venture announced in three months.

Playboy Enterprises and its licensee, Oceania Caribe Licensing NV, will market the site worldwide except in the U.S., where the government is cracking down on Internet gambling, the companies said in a statement today. The poker site will be introduced in the first quarter of 2007.

Playboy Enterprises, Chicago-based publisher of Playboy magazine, and Oceania Caribe said on May 10 they would start a Playboy-branded Web site offering casino games such as blackjack. Chief Executive Officer Christie Hefner has stepped up licensing of the company’s Playboy bunny logo in retail stores and online and expects more high-profit-margin licensing partnerships with casinos.

Both sites are being developed by CryptoLogic Inc., a Toronto-based maker of Internet gaming software. CryptoLogic software is already used in poker sites for companies such as William Hill Plc.