Having just gone public earlier this year, it seems almost expected that the company would be moving toward revenue streams such as real-money gaming to keep in step with investors expectations. As it turns out, the move we’re seeing today is only what appears to be a very limited test of what Facebook can do with gambling with real cash, and only with two games in Britain. The first is a simple online “Bingo Friendzy” game created by the independent developer Gamesys.
The first game with real cash money being sent to users who win is indeed going to be passing out the dollars – or the pounds, rather – to users as Bingo ramps up. Gamesys also confirmed that they are doing this completely in-step with Facebook, with the both of them sharing profits. The same company, Gamesys, has confirmed that they’re bringing a slot machine game to Facebook rather soon. How they’ll be regulated on fairness in both games in the near future is not known.
Facebook’s confirmation that they’re allowing this business to go forth came in the form of a statement sent out to the press this morning.
Real money gaming is a popular and well-regulated activity in the UK and we are allowing a partner to offer their games to adult users on the Facebook platform in a safe and controlled manner.
Linda Griffin for Facebook also mentioned that they’ve only got the UK on the books thus far for any current or future plans for online real-money gambling. She did not mention what the cut for Facebook or Gamesys is for gambling happening now or in the future. There’s also been no specifics shown on how random the gambling system is or if any relegation is being done on the games that would otherwise be under the eye of the casino or gambling commission in charge of the physical region its in.
In other words – we’re still waiting to see if these gambling systems are perfectly OK to gamble with, or if you may want to stay away. For now, we’ll go ahead and head to the real slot machines!
[via NBC]
Facebook real-money gambling first in line for new revenue streams is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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