Anyone Having Troubles Inviting Friends ?

I invited a Facebook friend to play with me, and we both play on a daily basis. Apparently we are in each others friendlist ("Caesars Friends : 1" says the game hub), but we can't send gifts at all, the game just suggests us to invite more friends. 

Is there a way to search for a player manually instead of going through Facebook search ? I managed to invite random players and gift them coins, but there's no way I can add a specific player.