Social gaming platform designer Zynga is believed to be in talks with casino empire Wynn Resorts to create a potential online gambling partnership that will capitalize on legal game play.
Currently 20 states are considering legalizing online gambling after the Justice Department reinterpreted a federal law in December and found that it only banned sports betting and not other forms of online gambling.
News of Zynga’s want to move into the gambling field isn’t new news, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has been touting his company’s prospects of moving its virtual poker game into real-life betting, calling the possibilities with gambling games “mind-blowing.”
Experts however seems to agree that the odds of breaking it big in the gambling space are stacked against social media and other game designers, especially if they only partner with Wynn. The reason being that Zynga will need to work with other partners that are licensed to work in each state where gambling laws pass, while Wynn is only licensed to operate casinos in Las Vegas.
One example of where Zynga would run into issues is New Jersey where a bill that just passed through the state Senate required Internet license holders to run their computer servers from inside Atlantic City casinos.
In what could be an even bigger headache, Native American tribes in states such as Connecticut are claiming that such agreements with online casinos would violate their agreement with the state to avoid issuing casino licenses to anyone outside of the Native American community.
If Zynga can’t break the United States’ online gambling barrier they could open up online gambling apps in the UK where the practice is already legalized.
Would you be willing to log into Zynga gambling games via your Facebook account or do you still prefer to do your gambling at real tables inside real casinos?
