From Red Orbit – Zynga’s announcement it would be abandoning plans to enter the online gambling business in the US had investors cashing in their chips, as shares of the Farmville developer fell 14 percent in Nasdaq trading on Friday. The San Francisco-based social network game developer saw shares close at $3.01 after early trading saw the company’s stock plummet as much as 20 percent (to $2.81 per share), according to CNBC.com and Bloomberg reports. “While the company continues to evaluate its real-money gaming products in the UK test, Zynga is making a focused choice not to pursue a license…

From Venture Beat – Real-money gambling and FarmVille just don’t mix. Zynga chief operations officer David Ko said in an analyst conference call today that the company decided not to invest in U.S. real-money online gambling because it needs to stay focused on social gaming and its core casual audience. The San Francisco company slightly beat Wall Street expectations, but it continues to bleed users. This, and the decision to withdraw its plans to bid for real-money online gambling licenses in the U.S., led to a tumble in the company’s stock price after-hours trading. The stock is now down about…

There has been much  commentary in the press and on blogs about Zynga’s  anticipated and perhaps rather late entry into the Internet gambling(iGaming) business.  This topic has been discussed for years and it is finally here. Although Zynga is the 600 pound social/freemium game company in the room they are not the first cross over company to have a social/freemium business and an Internet gambling business under one roof. Gamesys’ Jackpotjoy was one of the first “true” crossover entries into the combined social and iGaming  realm. However, Gamesys has come from the opposite direction having been in the  UK Internet gambling…

From USA Today SAN FRANCISCO — Zynga CEO Mark Pincus may have an ace up his sleeve after all to save the troubled social games company he founded. UltimatePoker.com on Tuesday delivered Nevada residents a first taste of real-money Internet gambling, a move that could soon be dealt up by Zynga — not to mention others in high-tech, such as payment-processors like PayPal. “It’s a significant opportunity for Zynga,” IDC analyst Lewis Ward says of the company’s online gambling prospects. Billions of dollars could be in the offing after Ultimate Gaming, a Las Vegas-based casino operation, launches the first fully…