Gaming or Gambling - Where Will Zynga Land?

Over the last year, Zynga, long time social gaming developer has fallen off the revenue horse and dropped from a private, Pre-Initial Public Offering (IPO) valuation of $14 billion to a meager $2 billion. In the past, Zynga was focused on the Facebook gaming platform and things were looking great, but over the last 12 months, Zynga failed to grow and totally missed the iOS and Android markets. An announcement stating that Zynga will be focusing its efforts on real-money gaming has the stock up 10 points and the company is now undergoing a revamp to their brand and they are asking internal questions about who they want to be in the long term.

On December 4th the Nevada Gaming Control Board confirmed that the company had actually filed an application to see if they can receive a license for real-money gambling in the US. It is true that it would take up to 18 months before any approval will be issued but news of this decision to make the move into real-money gaming has the stock bouncing around Wall Street. Zynga does not want to rush into anything and with good reason,  making a premature move into the industry could produce a questionable product in a realm with so many heavy hitters.

Online gambling and especially online casinos and online casino games would benefit from a company such as Zynga, who basically revolutionized the idea of social gaming on the Facebook platform. Zynga already shares much of the same characteristics of other gambling companies and that can be seen on the games they have already developed. Even the staff at Zynga is in love with gambling and when the company is up, select development teams are sent to play at land based casinos in sin city as reward. It has also been said that the upper management there can more than hold there own at the poker table.

Zynga will be welcomed with open arms into the real-money gambling industry and I truly believe it will happen sooner than later