US casinos are looking for help from companies like King and Zynga
Both the gaming and gambling business in the USA continues to grow (last year alone, the revenue of the gambling entertainment market amounted to $87.1 billion only in the States). However, not everyone has enough.
New Jersey casinos are experiencing problems. Due to increased competition from neighboring regions, Atlantic City’s gambling revenues have been falling for many years in a row: since 2006, they have dropped by 40%, amounting to a “frivolous” $2.86 billion last year.
The New Jersey Gambling Industry Regulatory Service (Division of Gaming Enforcement) unexpectedly proposed to correct the situation. It announced that it is looking for developers who will be able to combine real-money games with game mechanics based on the player’s skills.
The service considers social and mobile companies like King and Zynga as potential partners, hoping that the latter will not only help them create new slot machines in casinos, but, perhaps, transfer their famous titles to them. At least, this is hinted at by the Western media.
In response to this initiative, King stated that it has “no plans to license Candy Crush Saga or any other game for use in slots or any other gambling entertainment.” Zynga, in turn, noted that it prefers free-to-play games for money.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com