Zynga Says Online Poker "A Very Interesting Opportunity"

Zynga is one of the biggest names in online gaming, offering dozens of different games through Facebook and other outlets. One of their most popular games is Zynga Poker, a free online poker game that allows players to compete with friends and strangers in play money games.

Now, Zynga COO John Schappert says that Zynga finds the prospect of real money online gambling “very interesting,” increasing speculation that the company could play a major role in a potentially regulated U.S. online poker market.

The statement came during a conference call in which Zynga shared their first quarterly earnings report with analysts. During the call, Schappert received a question about the possibility of Zynga offering real money gambling in the future.

“I think it’s actually a very interesting opportunity,” he said. “We have the world’s largest online poker game and the most social online poker game we’ve been running for four years. We had record results last quarter…it’s one of the top six games on Facebook. So I think we’re in a very good position, and it’s a category that’s interesting to us.”

Of course, any such move would be dependent on changes to federal or state laws in the United States. The highly publicized recent ruling by the U.S. Department of Justice that limited the scope of the Wire Act to sports betting would seem to have opened the door for online poker and casino games, but only if individual jurisdictions took the necessary steps to license operators to offer them. Several states appear to be in the process of approving such measures, and efforts are also likely at the federal level in the near future.

If Zynga should step into the online gambling arena, poker is just one area where they could make their presence known. The company recently announced a series of casino games that would be offered to their player base as well, which likely could also be adapted for real money play if the company went in that direction.

Zynga currently has around 200 million users on Facebook when all of their games are considered, making it one of the most popular developers on the social networking site. Along with their poker and other casino games, they are also known for games such as FarmVille.