Zynga Might Enter the US Mobile Gaming Market, Eventually
Though reports in the past week or two have indicated disappointing numbers in the recent New Jersey online gaming endeavor, not all of the analysts are pessimistic about its future. According to analysis by USA Today, the number of online gamblers with registered accounts in New Jersey is expected to triple in 2014. On the last day of January 2014, the state had a total of 197,782 account sign-ups.
In only the last two weeks of January, the registration numbers increased by 27%. The jump in revenues increased from $7.4 million in December to $9.5 million in January. While the USA Today expects to see the numbers level-off eventually, the increase should be significant by years end.
Why Players Prefer Licensed Sites
Online gamblers prefer to play on the licensed and regulated websites, because they know they’ll see their money. While plenty of legitimate offshore gambling sites do exist, gamblers have no legal recourse if an operator refuses to pay them for any reason. Disgruntled gamblers can post on Internet message boards and otherwise attempt to damage the site’s reputation, but this message can be overlooked or dismissed by many in the community.
When a site is regulated, players know they have a legal means of collecting their winnings. Beginning in November 2013, New Jersey began allowing Atlantic City casinos to partner with online gaming companies to launch online poker sites and online casinos, though sports gambling over the Internet remains illegal in the Garden State.
Why Players Enjoy Online Poker
USA Today spoke with several of New Jersey’s new online poker players. These gamblers talked about preferences between the different Atlantic City online card rooms, along with their playing habits in general. Michael Gagliano, aka “Gags30”, says he enjoys WSOP Online because it has the best software of the bunch. He enjoys gambling at Borgata Online, because it offers the largest players community and therefore the bigges selection of tournaments.
Mr. Gagliano says he splits his time between online and offline play. He spends about 30% of his time in brick-and-mortar casinos in Atlantic City, while spending the other 70% of his time gambling through the online sites. Despite this, about 90% of his action is online, because he can play at multiple tables at once (in different tabs on the computer).
Gags30 give players sound advice when gambling. Because he might play in 50 online tournaments per day (“turbo” or “sit-n-go” events), he clears $3,000 in winnings on an average day. While collecting so much cash gives one the illusion of being a winning player, Gagliano warns other players to keep a close track of their buy-in fees. In his case, most of the $3,000 is taken away by entry fees, so in fact, he only breaks even for the day.
Mobile Gambling Expected to Yield Huge Profits
While most gamblers still prefer the traditional online gambling methods with a personal computer or laptop, gaming on mobile devices like an Android smartphone or an Apple iPad tablet computer is becoming a preferred method. Juniper Research estimates that mobile gambling will bring in $100 billion globally per year as early as 2017. A recent article by Slate Magazine suggested that widespread, mainstream online gambling will exist in the United States by the year 2020.
The traditional land-based gaming companies are expected to take advantage of the (at present) $12 billion a year mobile gaming industry. Still, they will not be the only major players in the new arena. Indications are that online free-play gaming giants like Zynga and King Ltd. are expected to become involved in real money mobile gambling.
Zynga Plus Casino
Zynga began working with bwin.Party Group in 2012 to produce the Zynga Plus Casino, the company’s first online gambling website. Zynga Plus Casino is available only to players in the United Kingdom (that, IP addresses in the UK). The website has been a success, though breaking into the American market is going to be harder–and riskier.
The UIGEA has been an impediment to any gambling company for the past several years. But with New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware legalizing online gambling and licensing game operators online, the market may open up soon. Several other states are considering the idea of making online betting legal, while Delaware and Nevada signed an interstate iPoker agreement last week. Senator Raymond Lezniak of New Jersey also introduced a bill to legalize interstate betting for the Atlantic City poker websites.
Predicting the End of Land-Based Casinos
With the move to online and mobile casino gambling, some have proclaimed such activities will make offline gambling obsolete. Illinois Senate President Cullerton worried as much last week, when he gave measured support for an online gambling bill in Illinois.
Slate Magazine’s article suggests a different endgame to the present wave of legislation. Slate believes the online gambling will force states like California to redo land-based casino laws in order to lure more tourists to their brick-and-mortar industry. In turn, this will lead to other states lowering barriers to gambling, so the end result will be a great opening of online gambling in the United States by the year 2020.
