Social gaming giant Zynga seems to be eying the possibility of offering online scratchcards and online poker in the near future.
It is no surprise that the allure and magic of online scratchiesare grabbing the attention of many gaming powerhouses.
Zynga already offers virtual casino based games to their millions of social players. Te leap to the ever social based scratchcard format is not a big one.
It is easy to see how companies like Zynga could derive the benefits of its loyal followers to convert them to social gambling of which online scratchcards are at the top of the list.
Zynga dropped a bombshell yesterday when it announced that it is to launch its own platform that will be available directly from their site and not solely on Facebook.
Many industry experts believe that this is a strategic move on Zynga’s part as it has ambitions to enter the online gambling arena.
For the moment Zynga is still committed to their partnership with Facebook which gets a tidy 30% cut of sales from sales of Zynga’s digital credit, It is worth noting that the 3.4 billion dollars of revenue in 2011, 12 percent of this game from its partnership with Zynga.
As reported Zynga has made no secret of their plans to enter the online gambling arena. In order to do this however in the U.S. they would have to partner up with a company that has a license to gamble legally in a defined jurisdiction.
The possibility of the U.S. “online scratch card“ market opening up has resulted in a frenzy of companies wanting to get a piece of the lucrative scratch card pie.
With election year in the U.S. scratchcards are considered a painless tax. Revenues from legal scratchies could provide politicians a way out of raising taxes.
Many U.S. legislators are aware that it would be much easier to sell the softer forms of gambling like the scratch card to their cautious constituents.
Scratchcards enjoy wide popularity as their simple format makes scratching and winning a viable option for all.
There have been reports in the Dow Jones Newswire that Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has been in talks with the Nevada based Wynn Resorts. At present Nevada is at the forefront of efforts to legalize online gambling in the U.S. It is also worth remembering that Zynga’s home state California has also been among the forerunners in introducing proposals to legalize online gambling.
The ability to attract millions of online players to an inviting and rewarding format like the scratchcard makes it the central focus of many global gaming powerhouses.