Real Money Gambling Coming to Facebook

This might be the best thing to happen to Casinos since Robert Deniro and Joe Pesci.

According to eGaming Review (content is behind a firewall), Facebook could be offering real money gambling in the UK in early 2012. Zynga is not on the list of companies slated to offering real money gambling, despite its hugely popular poker game (over 53 million likes at the time of this article). However, some reputable names in the online gambling business in Europe are, including 888 Holdings and Gamesys. eGr’s sources report that not only is Facebook in talks with various partners to host these games, but also that Facebook itself is building staff for the specific purpose of supporting these gambling efforts.

Would you gamble online on Facebook? Let us know in the comments.

Although there appears to be a push by Facebook to utilize credits as the currency of choice to gamble, real money gambling is expected to still be involved when these Facebook casinos launch.

Interestingly, Facebook’s current Platform Policies explicitly prohibit any applications that provide “[o]nline gambling, games of skill or lotteries, including online casinos, sports books, bingo, or poker”. Presumably, this has always been intended for applications that utilize money to participate, as the aforementioned free Zynga Texas Hold’em is one of the largest apps on Facebook.

When could other countries expect to see something similar? Online gaming is a huge industry, and Facebook integration could only help the industry grow, so it’s safe to assume that if things go well in the UK that we’ll be seeing other countries offer varying degrees of online gambling for real money in Facebook. That is, of course, if you live in a country that Internet gambling is permitted. If you live in the United States, you’re unfortunately out of luck. The “Land of the Free” explicitly bans companies from offering real money gambling over the Internet to its citizens.

Hat tip to 2+2.