Zynga patents show a serious interest in online gambling

Social gaming giant Zynga‘s interest in getting into the online gambling sector is well known, but an analysis of its patents by the intellectual property publication EnvisionIP this week showed just how deep that is.

Envision reports that over the past year the number of patents lodged by Zynga has soared from 1, with 9 pending, to 89 US patents, with a further 36 applications pending.

38 patents were taken aboard with the acquisition of Walker Digital, Envision notes – and 33 of these relate to casino gambling and associated technologies ranging from gaming devices linked to a slot machine server to team play within a slot club and making pay-outs based on predefined pay-out rules.

Many of the patents have application in both land and online gambling, and Zynga’s own in-house patents already include virtual currency management and gifting, interactive multi-user online gaming, remote software updating, and social networking features.

Zynga has applied for a Nevada online poker licence, and last year inked a partnership deal with Bwin.Party to offer real money internet gambling in the UK starting this year .

Related and similar