For those that don't know, Zynga is a social network game developer. They are responsible for some of the highest profile games on Facebook. Farmville, Fishville, and Cityville are just a small sliver of the Zynga pie.

Recent actions taken by Zynga lead me to believe that they are poised to take over the U.S. internet poker market when and if the government gets around to doing what it needs to do. I'll warn you, I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist.

Here are some reasons why I believe this.

I'm sure everybody heard about Zynga acquiring the team behind pokertableratings.com.

If not, read about it here

What exactly do they needs these people for? I thought this was an odd acquisition for an social network game developer. Seems fishy.

Also, Zynga recently held it's own live tournament with real cash prizes. Read their announcement here.

I don't really know how this event went over (anybody attend?), but supposedly, they had some pros attend. Hmmmm.

Currently Zynga generates about 70% of its revenues from games played on Facebook.

Zynga is looking to diversify, and with a burgeoning userbase already, internet poker may be just the way to go.

There have been some recent talks in the business world about IPOs from several major internet sites, e.g. Facebook and Twitter. The internet hints at Zynga going the same route in 2012. Search for yourself.

If Zynga does launch an internet poker client in the future, I know I will be lining up to buy some stock at their IPO.

Also, an online poker client by Zynga would be great for the already existing poker community. Hopefully, we would be lining up against players playing on their iPhones, iPads, Facebook, and wherever else. This means a lot of fishies.

What does everybody think?

Zynga poker for real money would be like a teleport tab back to 2004

yeah i'm sure zynga can't wait to offer real money games so they can end up getting ass raped by the DOJ.

we need federal licensing before this pipe dream has a chance

Yeah, that's why I said in my original post,

"when and if the government gets around to doing what it needs to do"

I believe you are 100% correct, and have been thinking the same myself.

Stars/FTP/UB etc. will perhaps survive but they will be tainted once/if US gov't start issue licenses.

Zynga in turn is Facebook approved, legit, transparent and acceptable enough for your mum, cousin, boss, ex etc. to use.

People are even willing to spend money doing it, although they technically don't win any dough.

If this happens, Stars will not be first in line to get a license, but Zynga will be right up there.

Next thing you know, they partner up with some brick-and-mortar guru and it's on a roll.

Thanks for links etc.

I suspect what will happen is American casinos will buy enough politicians to change the law in their favor and then run their own online poker services. Either their own branded services (think e-Harrah's) , in conjuntion with one another (Harrah's and Disney Present Supkerpoker.com), or buy/licence the big services like FTP or PSespecially if US players are restricted to just playing in American sites. They'll probably just licence the software for a ton of money instead of having to produce it from scratch.

not at all

Zynga will be dead and gone by the time the legislation in the US comes around in favour of online poker. 2020 could be a good year though.

Good thing i have been hoarding all of these Zynga chips. hehehehehehehehe