Zynga says no to real money gaming

With indications that a relaxation in American online gaming laws is imminent, the rumour mills have gone into overdrive. Recent stories have circulated that Zynga, the social network game developer has been preparing itself to get in on the action. However, news now coming from Zynga HQ suggests that the company has little interest in moving into the real money gaming market.

Zynga already has a successful offering by way of Zynga Poker and has plans to release a Zynga Casino suite of games including Zynga Bingo. With such a well-established infrastructure and community of players it was no surprise that the gaming community assumed that a foray into real-money gaming would be a foregone conclusion. However, Zynga has advised that it is loath to alienate its existing fan base, by according to a Zynga insider, “screwing up that community”.

Lo Toney, Zynga Casino General Manager recently advised that “We are in the virtual goods business and we have been able to create a good business for ourselves like this. Therefore we have no plans to enter the real-money market.”

Whether or not Zynga decides to develop and launch a real-money option there is no denying that the potential in this market is huge, therefore competition is likely to be fierce. Real money gaming is set to hit the UK as early as March 2012, with Facebook announcing that up to eight licenses to individual operators who will then use the network as a platform to integrate their applications. If the US do relax or rescind the online gaming laws, it will only be a matter of time before real money gaming via social networking sites makes an appearance in the American market.