Oh Crap, Zynga's Getting Into Online Gambling

If "Farmville" used real money we'd have gone broke by now.

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Zynga's biggest achievement as a game developer has been to monetize the simple action of playing its games—as in, spending money on FarmVille doesn't necessarily get you more content. It just gets you the normal FarmVille content, but you get it sooner. Now take that principle and apply it to online gambling and we might be on the verge of another great depression.

That's right: Zynga is getting into online gambling. Its first foray involves a FarmVille slot machine, which will launch in January 2013 in the UK in conjunction with online gambling firm bwin.party Digital Entertainment.

Now imagine this: in addition to spending and winning real money on those slots, you can also win in-game FarmVille 2 items. We're not saying that's what's going to happen, but why not let us double up on our addictions? Considering how addictive Zynga's games already are, we're guessing the developer's move toward real gambling is going to be massively successful. Are you ready to relapse?

[via Joystiq]

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