Facebook Real Money Mobile Online Gambling Speculation With Oculus Acquisition
There has been plenty of speculation of late that social media giant Facebook could be planning to leap into the mobile online gambling market with its recent acquisition of Oculus.
Last week, Facebook spent approximately $2 billion to purchase Oculus, one of the world’s largest virtual reality companies. More specifically, Oculus has developed a ground-breaking virtual reality headset for immersive gaming that will provide Facebook with an opportunity to dominate this market.
Facebook could look to incorporate the virtual reality technology into the real money online gambling experience in regions of the world where Web gambling is legal such as the United Kingdom. Ultimately, the US market may come into play as the activity becomes legalized on a state-by-state basis.
Michael Essany of mGamingWatch.com writes:
Unlike the smaller online gambling outfits that are presently restricted to the markets in New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada, Facebook’s mammoth reach across the U.S. and its pervasive marketing muscle could light a fire under the overall domestic online gambling market.
On the surface, one might contend that the likes of Caesar’s Entertainment, Boyd’s and Bwin.Party are far from “smaller online gambling outfits”. But when we look at the two states that have so far legalized Web gambling, only casino powerhouse Caesar’s has managed to gain a foothold in both state markets. Ultimate Gaming, powered by Nevada-based Station Casinos, has thus far failed to have any serious impact in New Jersey. The Bwin.Party group, which currently dominates the New Jersey market, does not even have a presence in the Silver State.
The problem perhaps: None of these companies maintain a strong national Internet presence across the US. Facebook, on the other hand, well….we don’t really have to say much more in that regard.
Essany suggests that federal legislation in the US could soon pass that would permit online gambling across the board as opposed to the state-by-state approach. Most industry experts believe this is no longer a viable option, especially when we have legislation introduced last week that seeks to prevent further expansion of Web gambling.
Facebook, however, has the ability to benefit from the state-by-state approach simply by teaming up with already licensed entities.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
