Zynga Brings Real-Money Gambling To The UK

Zynga has joined together with Bwin.party Digital Entertainment in order to launch its own real-money gambling apps. Zynga is keeping true to its promised made last July, when it said that it planned on launching an online gambling service this year. Right now, it's only launching the apps in the United Kingdom, however, it plans on spreading its online gaming apps to more European markets later on this year.

The two apps that Zynga plans on releasing are called 'ZyngaPlusPoker" and "ZyngaPlusCasino". ZyngaPlusPoker is self-explanatory, but ZyngaPlusCasino brings you a variety of gambling games, including BlackJack and Roulette. The games will start off as web-based games, and desktop applications at first, but Zynga plans on integrating the apps into Facebook in the future as well.

Zynga hired the former Senior Executive of 888 Holdings PLC (an online gambling poewrhouse), Maytal Olsha, to help it branch into the real-money gambling world. Zynga believes that it will soon be able to tap into its 300 million users, and generate a potential $30 billion from its online gambling services (19.85 billion pounds). After announcing the launch of its online gambling apps, Zynga's shares rose up 5.5%.

Zynga still has many legal hurdles to jump over in order to bring its real-money gambling apps to the United States, but it still plans on releasing its app in several states where online gambling isn't illegal. Zynga's Chief Revenue Officer, Barry Cottle, stated, "Our long term vision is to offer our players the next generation of real money games on multiple platforms in regulated markets worldwide." It looks like those of us in the U.S. will have to wait a while before we get to gamble away our hard-earned money, but those of you in the UK can experience the joys of gambling starting tomorrow.

[via Reuters]