Okay, so maybe the social gaming thing didn’t work out as planned. As I get fewer Farmville and Mafia Wars (that was my game, though) requests on Facebook, Zynga faces tumbling investor confidence, lay-offs, and studio closings.
But with New Jersey and Nevada’s legalization of online gambling, everything may soon be coming up Zynga!
Nevada legalized the proposed measure last Thursday. Thanks to investor optimism that the troubled gaming firm could make out big in the billion dollar industry and pull out of the doldrums, Zynga stock rallied 7.5 percent. Zynga has been in talks with Nevada’s Gaming Control Board in anticipation of the move.
Today, East Coast gambling giant New Jersey followed suit, looking to cash in on the new revenue stream. Their law is slated to take effect three to nine months from now.
Although Las Vegas and Atlantic City may conjure images of the hardcore, high rolling type, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus says that the company will stay true to their roots courting the casual player:
“We’re not the company to win the hardcore real-money gamers…But we think we are for the mass market audience.”
Zynga has already dipped their toe in the real-money online gambling pool in the U.K., with Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment.
