Facebook to enter real money gambling market!

It's to early to get excited, but it looks like the second poker boom might be slowly approaching poker market. First we reported about Zynga Poker trying to obtain software for real money poker games and now it looks like the biggest social site on the internet, Facebook, is trying to enter real money online gambling market!!

They said they would never enter that market, but it looks like they changed their mind - FaceBook allows people to bet real money in their game Bingo Friendzy, created by Gamesys. This is the first time users can wager real currency instead of virtual credits or points. For the time being, the option is available only to United Kingdom residents who are over 18-years of age.

This is obviously not poker, but as FaceBook is reaching into gambling market, we can only hope for the best, and without a doubt - having as strong player as FaceBook being for regulation of poker in the world could speed things up a little.

“Bingo is at the softer end of the gambling spectrum and online bingo often has chat forums alongside, so it’s an obvious match for Facebook,” Remote Gambling Association chief executive Clive Hawkswood told the Financial Times. “A lot of people have said why haven’t they done it before because there’s a difficulty in monetising what they have – this is one way of bringing in revenues. Gambling is very popular and well regulated in the UK?.?.?.?for millions of bingo users it’s already a social experience [so] it makes sense [for us] to offer that as well.”

There are limitations and regulations to protect the users and law requirements. You will need to verify your identity, age and the fact that you are located in the UK. Facebook also has what is called “age-gating” technology which prevents underage Facebook users from seeing any of the real money gambling activity on the site.

keep the good news comin pls : )

hmmm, perhaps a reason to start playing again.

Would be interesting if Facebook and Pokerstars became competitors.

hope they wont notify your friends about your winnings. definitely looking forward to it tho

Facebook would most likely crush PS if it decided to really throw itself into the market... they have so much $$$ / resources / brilliant minds

and they have all the fish!

Playing poker while peeping through old girlfriends profile pages on the same wesbite = win.

PLEASE. Poker. Online. USA. Facebook fishes. One time.

On August 09 2012 19:06 vasoline73 wrote: PLEASE. Poker. Online. USA. Facebook fishes. One time.

this.

all i have is my brain, and by my calculations, waiting for this to happen is a fool's move

Holy shit the fish that would play poker if Facebook entered a legalized online poker market....

I guess I need to create a facebook account...
Also lol @ americans who think they will be allowed to play ( we need them badly tho )

Inb4 35% rake.

this is like 5-in-the-morning-early to get excited

On August 10 2012 03:53 taco wrote: Inb4 35% rake.

+40% taxes from winnings

well who knows .. if they are smart they could easly dominate by actualy lowering the rake
more site -> more competition -> could mean lower rake

sorry... I'm just an optimist ;p

I can just imagine after a losing session:

"David Davidson just lost $1,208 playing Facebook Texas Hold'em"

Uncle Joe: David wtf bla bla bla gambling bad bla bla bla etc.

this seems as likely as powerlifting being added to the olympics

one time!