Facebook has quietly launched a real-money online gambling application in the U.K., marking a major thrust of the social networking site into online gambling.
The Financial Times is reporting that starting today, Facebook will offer users in the U.K. ages 18 and over online bingo and slots for cash prizes. Slate.com picked up the story this afternoon.
“Gambling is very popular and well regulated in the U.K. For millions of bingo users it’s already a social experience [so] it makes sense [for us] to offer that as well,” Julien Codorniou, Facebook’s head of gaming for Europe, Middle East and Africa, told the Financial Times.
It’s telling in and of itself that Facebook has a gaming chief for the EMEA region. The synergies of social media and gambling has been seriously discussed for several years, mostly in foreign venues, as the U.S. government until recently, has been hostile toward Internet gambling.
However, the recent thaw on the part of the Department of Justice, seen most recently in its settlement (don’t-call-it-an-exoneration) with PokerStars, plus state action toward legalization in in states such as Nevada and Delaware, point to eventual legalization of Internet gambling in the U.S.
In that respect, look for Facebook to be ready. Research from The Innovation Group, a gaming marketing research company, shows that more than half the users on online gaming come in through social media or search. Companies such as Zynga, which began by offering multiplayer social games such as Cityville, Castleville and Mafia Wars on Facebook, are particularly well-positioned. Zynga’s most popular on-line game is poker, and Zynga and companies like it have a logical growth path into online gambling. Given their established connection with social networks, it’s a good shot we’ll see virtual online casino environments emerge within social networks such as Facebook, Google+, Orkut and others.
The natural convergence of social media and gaming environments has been explored fairly extensively. European researchers such as Jani Kinnunen of the Game Research Lab at Finland’s University of Tampere finds this running both ways. As social networks explore gaming, gaming sites explore social networking.
Skill gaming sites can be excellent examples of new forms of gambling. Casual web-browser based games (any game can be a gambling game). Players can place a monetary bet on their games and play against each other, which requires social interaction between player.
Moreover, games and game-related interaction don’t have to be situated in the same place. Kinnunen notes that online poker sites and player forums are usually separated. Poker forums are online communities where players can interact with each other before and after playing, communicating, learning new skills, exchanging tips for good gaming sites and so on.
What we have yet to learn is how Facebook is setting up age-verification and security procedures, as well as location-based restrictions. All of these will be part of the picture once Internet gambling moves forward in the U.S., and they represent technology skill strengths Americans have. The central takeaway today, however, is that a major U.S. company has entered the international online gambling market, where legitimacy has long been established. Facebook’s move is another step toward extending that legitimacy to the U.S.