I just came upon an interesting fact the other day that said Facebook’s poker provider – Zynga Poker – is worth more than $8 billion. The findings came courtesy of a Wall Street Journal article that took a close look at the company, and published the staggering net worth.
So here’s my question: why is Zynga Poker worth $8 billion? The simple answer is that the site has attracted over 35 million members, which is more than both PokerStars and Full Tilt – the world’s largest online poker rooms. In addition to this, Zynga sells poker chips to members who want to use their services. And business only looks to get bigger for Zynga because of Facebook’s 500-million-and-growing membership base.
But the root of my question is more like, how can Zynga be worth $8 billion, operate in the United States, and get away with making up to $200 a day off each player? After all, isn’t online poker supposed to be illegal when money is exchanging hands?
Okay, I know that it’s not considered illegal because Zynga Poker is technically not gambling. Instead, it is people exchanging money to use a service (poker chips) provided by Zynga. However, my problem with the whole ordeal is that people are spending money to participate in play money games where they’re not getting any value back for the chips. And NO, players cannot sell the chips after purchasing them as documented in the rules. In my opinion, it should be more legal for people to buy into real money games where they actually have a chance to win money back rather than blowing cash on free chips.
In reality, I don’t care about the actions of Zynga, I’m just pointing out how stupid it is that they can make money off of free poker games, but real poker sites are supposedly operating illegally in the US.
