Zynga Applies for Gambling License

December 20, 2012

Zynga has made no secret of the fact that it fully intends to leverage the value of its Facebook slots brand, by opening a proper pay to play online casino site. Zynga has made several moves in the last weeks, all designed to help the company position itself for this impending change of direction.

Firstly, Zynga renegotiated its deal with Facebook, to remove any legal trading association between Zynga and Facebook. Next, Zynga has begun testing core technologies on its Facebook slots platform.

Today, we have heard that Zynga has taken a pretty crucial step towards opening a full online casino site. Zynga has applied to the Nevada Gaming Control Board for a USA online gambling license. The Nevada Gaming Control Board has confirmed that Zynga has made an application for a USA online gambling license, but also stated that Zynga had not specified the scope of its plans, and what kind of online gambling games it wishes to be licensed for.

Zynga now face up to an 18 month wait, as the Nevada Gaming Control Board reviews its application. This process will also include several hearings, the first of which, the preliminary hearing, should happen quite soon.

Barry Cottle, Zyngas’s Chief Revenue Officer, has state that, “As we’ve said previously, the broader U.S. market is an opportunity that’s further out on the horizon based on legislative developments, but we are preparing for a regulated market.”

There can be no doubt that Zynga sees a possible new online casino site as a major new source of revenue. We can also presume that Zynga is confident that its technology can stand up to the increased level of security and robustness that will be required to satisfy the Nevada Gaming Control Board that the company is capable of operating such an online casino site.

We think it will now take several months before Zynga can move any closer towards its stated goal of opening a new pay to play online casino site, but we will keep reads informed of any new happenings.

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