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Zynga Withdraws Online Gambling License Application

Zynga Withdraws Online Gambling License Application

Added: September 29, 2013

Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey are the first three states in the United States to offer legalized and regulated online gambling. Companies that are interested in offering online gambling services to players in those jurisdictions must submit an application for a license that will be granted by each individual states to the companies that match the eligibility criteria. The word on the internet was that Zynga had submitted an application for a license in the state of Nevada, but a more recent report states that the application has been withdrawn.

Land casinos were the first to capitalize on online casino gambling licenses, in an attempt to expand the reach of their services and grow their databases. However, Zynga saw a great opportunity to engage their already massively large audience of players on Zynga Poker into real money wagering on the internet. The fact that the company has already positioned itself as an online gaming giant through social media sites gave it an advantageous position over land casinos that would have to put more effort into recruiting players before seeing any success.

However, the new CEO of Zynga, Don Mattrick, who is also the former President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, announced that the company has formally withdrawn its online gambling license application in Nevada as they are planning to step aside from the industry for now. The company's current plans are to focus in the development of their free games repertoire on social media sites. "Zynga is making the focused choice not to pursue a license for real money gaming in the United States," the company confirmed in July. "[However] Zynga will continue to evaluate all of its priorities against the growing market opportunity in free, social gaming, including social casino offerings."

The other plans for Zynga involve the development of their ongoing online gambling project in the United Kingdom. Many players were disappointed to hear about the formal withdrawal of the company from the application process. We hope that Zynga will reconsider their real money online gambling project in the United States in the near future, not only because it would be a great opportunity for the company, but the players would also benefit greatly from top quality gaming. Zynga has some of the best audiovisual effects for online gaming and they put serious efforts into the quality of their projects. It would definitely be interesting to see an online casino or an online poker room designed by Zynga.