Gambling: Adding Another Addiction To Facebook

The popular online app company Zynga, is getting ready to launch a real money online gambling app for already media addicted Facebook users. This will be available online as well as on your mobile device making gambling easier than it was before. Zynga has downplayed the financial opportunity and says it is just in the beginning stages of its experiment.

Sean Ryan, the head of game partnerships at Facebook, is showing off the Facebook titles for Zynga. The games include ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino. Both are gambling versions of Zynga’s social games, produced in partnership with Bwin.party, a British real-money online gambling company. The San Francisco company will be launching the games in the United Kingdom first, where it is legal to gamble real money online.

The games are the first wave of Zynga‘s strategic expansion into Facebook and mobile gambling games. Investors have been very interested in them because they represent a chance for Zynga to make more money. In social games such as Zynga Poker, players can purchase virtual chips with real money. But they can’t cash out their winnings. In ZyngaPlusPoker, players will have the option to play for actual money.

On top of that, they are eligible to win promotional prizes such as a free night’s stay in a casino hotel or a free buffet meal, something many casinos do in their attempts to lure players to their gambling tables and slot machines. Online gambling games are tightly regulated. They have to be certified so they are not unfairly tilted against players. Zynga has hired its own in-house online gambling experts, and it acquired Spooky Cool Labs, which was founded by a team of slot machine game experts headed by Joe Kaminkow.

Be on the look out for more game requests in your Facebook inbox. Real money online gambling will be another addiction that can be found on Facebook.