Zynga Will No Longer Pursue License For Real Money Gaming in the United States

Published on July 25th, 2013 4:46 pm EST

Zynga, operator of social games such as Farmville, Words with Friends and Zynga Poker, announced in their second quarter earnings report that they will no longer be pursuing a license for real money gaming in the United States.

Here is the excerpt regarding real money gaming in the United States from their earnings report:

"Zynga believes its biggest opportunity is to focus on free to play social games. While the Company continues to evaluate its real money gaming products in the United Kingdom test, Zynga is making the focused choice not to pursue a license for real money gaming in the United States. Zynga will continue to evaluate all of its priorities against the growing market opportunity in free, social gaming, including social casino offerings."

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Shares of Zynga had rallied roughly 75% off of their fall 2012 lows, and much of the reason behind the upswing was optimism over Zynga's incursion into the real money gaming markets in the United Kingdom and United States.

However, Zynga recently named Don Mattrick as the new CEO of the company, and one of his first moves was to reveal that Zynga would no longer be pursuing real money gaming in the United States. Mattrick formerly served as the President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft and the President of Worldwide Studios at Electronic Arts.

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Shares of Zynga are down roughly 14% in after-hours trading.

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