A Social Network for Gamblers and Players?

The idea of combining online gambling with social networking sites could have catastrophic consequences, especially if the operators do little to control which users are actually gambling. However, a social network for gambling is just what users have wanted for a long time and it is basically the leading social networking sites that are merely responding to demand.

Currently there are licenced gambling portals such as bingo sites, poker sites, online bookmakers and online casinos where players can go online and place a legal wager, but only after having provided the necessary identification documents and after passing ID verification checks. With regards to social interaction, the only real way for players to communicate with one another is via the occasional instant messaging chat feature.

This feature is particularly popular at bingo sites, as well as around the poker tables, and there are also chat features available at Live Dealer casinos where players can communicate with other gambling enthusiasts. In some cases, players can even chat with the actual dealers.

If you look at the statistics, you will see that more than half of all social networking users take advantage of the social games.

Alarmingly, people are willing to spend money on gambling even though at the time of writing they cannot win any real cash. These casino-themed games are currently only available in what is known as the fun mode.

It seems as though gambling is deeply embedded into our culture anyway, so creating a social network for gamblers would only normalise gambling, but could this lead to a huge wave of people developing uncontrollable gambling problems? If the move is successful, the temptation will always be there for users to have a flutter and for many players this temptation will certainly be too irresistible to avoid.

According to statistics, there are more than 11 million players that frequently log in to play on these fun social networking games. This is why there has been so much speculation about the inevitable merger of social gambling and gambling in general. The potential revenue that could be earned from this staggering number of frequent players is estimated to reach well into the billions of dollars, per month.

Various gambling operators are therefore itching to break into the social networking arena and offer their services to a much wider audience of 'would-be' gamblers. It is likely that sites like Facebook and reputable gambling operators will begin to work together to create a 'real money gaming' virtual world whereby legal gambling services would instantly become available for hundreds of millions global users.

Gambling could soon become an epidemic if we are not careful and unless there are strict regulations in place, it will only be the gambling operators and social networking sites that will benefit. As the saying goes, "the house always wins."

All of the major companies that are seeking to venture into these unchartered waters are literally poised to do so any time now and we could see that in 2012/2013, there will probably be a large number of real cash games available at sites such as Facebook.

On a more meaningful level, a social network for gamblers could end up causing a great deal more harm than good and it could breed entire nations of new gamblers who will have little or no concept about the true risks of gambling. Only time will tell what sort of effect this will really have on our society.

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