A real-money gambling app has been launched on Facebook - the social network's first.
The move to offer gambling services is a sensitive area in some countries like the.S.
In the US, for example, online gambling is largely prohibited in all but some states.For the last three quarters, Facebook has been struggling to move the needle on its payments business, but today a new game has launched that could provide a clue to how that could change that in the future: the social network has, for the first.Financial terms of the deal, Facebook tells us, are commercially confidential, so it is not clear whether proceeds from the game will follow the 30/70 revenue split that applies to games using Facebook Credits.Britons aged 18 and over will be able to stake real money on the new Facebook game, dubbed Bingo Friendzy.Facebook has made a bold move into the online gambling space, allowing UK developer Gamesys to launch the platform's first real-money gaming app.(VegasVille, anyone?) For now, Zynga would have to only offer such services outside of the.S., which has strict laws against online gambling.So why the UK first for this?The move comes at the same time that Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, has said that his company is planning to introduce social gambling in 2013.Like many online gambling outfits, Bingo Friendzy is registered in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, and is restricted to players who are over 18 and resident in the.
In the three months to 30 June, 123m (192m) out of Facebook's 760m (1.2bn) in revenues were generated from payments made in games such as Zynga's Farmville and Mafia Wars.
Bingo Friendzy games is published to users' timelines, posts are restricted from appearing in the feeds of under-18 and non-UK users.
European interactive gambling was worth.3bn (6.6bn) in 2009 and is expected to reach.6bn (10bn) by 2012.Facebook said the decision to launch a real-cash gambling app in the UK had been motivated by "a mature and very well-regulated gambling market".Dubbed, bingo Friendzy, geld verdienen als student schweiz the app offers users a selection of bingo and slots games, allowing them to pay directly with cash rather than mediating their purchases through Facebook's Credits system.Young people are far more likely to see an ad for Bingo on the TV or in a betting shop window as they walk to school than they are on Facebook, a source told TechCrunch. .In its press release, the company said users would have access to self-help tools to reduce the risk of gambling addiction, including the ability to set spending limits.In that context it is not too surprising to see it exploring more avenues akin to how Facebook is looking for new formats in advertising to bolster that side of the business."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 she told the BBC.