Eagle-eyed John Mehaffey of the online poker information site US Poker.com, reports that social gaming giant Zynga appears to have abandoned, for now anyway, its ambitions for a Nevada intrastate online poker licence.
Mehaffey spotted the withdrawal of the Zynga application on the September Nevada Gaming Control Board preliminary agenda, where it is listed as a “request to withdraw application.”
The application to withdraw was subsequently granted, and a Zynga insider confirmed to US Poker that a withdrawal had been requested.
US Poker points out that Zynga advised in its Q2-2013 posting that it intended to drop its US real money poker plans in order to focus on freemium social games, although it affirmed that will continue to “…evaluate all of its priorities against the growing market opportunity in free, social gaming, including social casino offerings.”
The report referred in particular to real money online poker operations in the United Kingdom under the Zynga Poker Plus brand on the Party Poker network, confirming that its evaluation process continues.
The decision is undoubtedly that of Zynga’s CEO, Dan Mattrick, who was appointed earlier this year and almost immediately voiced his intention to focus on the core social gaming business of the company (see previous reports).