One of Zynga's oldest games, Zynga Poker, may get a little more exciting if Zynga has its way. The company said in an email to All Things D that it's looking into online gambling should the practice become legal in the USA. Zynga's Texas Holdem Poker has over 6.5 million Daily Active Users (DAU) and over 30 million Monthly Average Users (MAU), putting it among the top social games. It's also the largest poker site in the world, which no doubt factors into Zynga's desire to get into actual poker if given the chance.
"We know from listening to our players that there's an interest in the real money gambling market. We're in active conversations with potential partners to better understand and explore this new opportunity," said Zynga today. Online poker was banned in the USA in 2006 by the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Recently, though, the Justice Department issued a new ruling on the 1961 Wire Act which was the basis for the ruling that online gambling was illegal. The DoJ ruling indicates it's only betting on sports that's illegal online, which seems to indicate that states could legalize other forms of gambling.
Both the State of California and Zynga would be interested in new large revenue streams, such as might be made possible from online gambling. Other companies are also interested, as the acquisition earlier this week of Facebook gambling game developer Double Down by gambling giant IGT would indicate.
Not so fast, warns Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia in a report earlier this week. “It is not clear how soon, if ever, online gambling may be legalized in the U.S."
Some investors may be paying attention to the possibility, though, since Zynga's shares today closed over 6.5% today at over $9, which is unusual in that most of this year the stock has traded under $9.
