Nevada Legalizes On-Line Poker – ZNGA On The Rise

You may get to play a real-money Zynga Poker game soon. News from Nevada is the states Republican Governor Brian Sandoval signed a bill into law that authorizes the state of Nevada to enter into agreements with other states and permitting Nevada-based companies to host interactive gambling for residents of other states.

Nevada legalizes first interstate online poker

By Ian Simpson

(Reuters) Republican Governor Brian Sandoval signed the landmark bipartisan bill into law on Thursday, authorizing his office to enter into agreements with other states that will in effect allow Nevada-based companies to host interactive gambling for residents of other states.

A number of companies have already been granted Nevada licenses for online poker, but were prepared to be limited to serving Nevada residents. Applicants include social gaming leader Zynga Inc. Shares in Zynga leapt as much as 7.4 percent on Friday.

With the bill, Nevada - home to Las Vegas, the world's second-largest gambling hub - wants to pave the way for national Internet wagering even though efforts at federal regulation have stalled. Established companies including MGM Resorts and Wynn Resorts hope they can add new customers and pitch online players to come to Vegas.

***

Nevada's legislation comes as New Jersey - home to Atlantic City - considers a similar move to legalize online gambling. Republican Governor Chris Christie rejected a measure earlier this month that would have allowed Internet gambling, but has said he would consider approving such a law if it was framed properly.

***

The bills follow a 2011 declaration by the U.S. Justice Department that only online betting on sporting contests broke federal law. That opened the door for states to legalize some forms of online gambling.

Although widespread legalization appears years away at the minimum, obtaining a license in Nevada would be a meaningful start for the nationwide aspirations of entrants such as Zynga, especially if they can offer games to those in other states.

Zynga, which runs one of the world's largest online communities of poker players, is hoping that a lucrative real-money market could make up for a steep slide in revenue from games like "FarmVille" that are losing players but still generate the bulk of its sales.

It is well-known that Zynga has interest in exploring the on-line gambling arena. Upon the news of Nevada legalizing on-line poker ZNGA gained momentum and interest in it’s shares.

Zynga, Inc. (ZNGA) -NasdaqGS

3.19 0.23(7.77%) 3:55PM EST - Nasdaq Real Time Price

Currently ZNGA is up 7.77% for the day. The ZNGA still has a long way to go to reach it’s 52 week high (52wk Range: 2.09 - 15.91).

The question remains…Is it time to buy in? What do you think?

Starter Packs – A Tempting Sale

 

Yes, you see that correctly. The Starter Pack, for me at least, is currently 94% off.

It’s almost tempting to make a purchase of the Starter Pack with it being this price. Especially when you compare just the cost of RP’s between the sale of the Starter Pack and the 40% off sale Of RP’s. For your Starter Pack purchase at a price of $4.80 you will get 160 RP in addition to 2 quality loots and 3 more random loots from the Apocalypse Crates and 12 skills in Stamina and Attack.

Whereas, the 40% off sale of RP you get 170 RP’s for a cost of $24.

If you’re going to make a purchase this would be a no-brainer. The catch-22 is that the Starter Pack is a one-time only purchase.

The Mafia Spirit Impact?

On Wednesday, February 20th, Mafia Spirit posted an article where we asked What Do You Find Fun About Mafia Wars? Within that article we included an image of  AppData.com’s estimated Mafia Wars Daily Active Users (re-shown below).

 

When we took the screen shot on Wednesday the estimated DAU was 235,304. Consider that our original post was showing all of the current (at that time) features that were/are aimed at Zynga trying to get players to purchase and/or spend RP. I do not recall a time where sales features ever caused the DAU to increase. One could argue that it has just happened within the past 2 days (see image below).

AppData.com is estimating for today the DAU for Mafia Wars is the highest it has been in more than a month. AppData.com is now estimating there are 261,025 users of Mafia Wars.

I’m sorry, but I can not believe that 30,000 (apprx) accounts were logged into just to buy a few pixels.

It makes more sense to assume that our post (What Do You Find Fun About Mafia Wars?) inspired many players to fire up some ghost accounts or even just to log in and see all the features for themselves that are geared for sale or use of RP.

We, here at Mafia Spirit, have to believe that we did make an impact and that we are striving to keep Mafia Wars vibrant with a healthy player base.

What Do You Find Fun About Mafia Wars?

One of the funnest things left about Mafia Wars is speculating on it’s remaining life-span. Guessing it’s end date, in other words.

Since February 7th Mafia Wars has lost approximately another 20,000 daily active users.

Source; http://www.appdata.com/apps/facebook/10979261223-mafia-wars

Zynga seems to have false illusions that it’s more fun for us to open our wallets and give them free raining access to our bank accounts and/or credit cards. If you look at the types of events that are currently available in the game it appears that nearly all of them require players to spend some amount of RP’s in order to complete them or even participate at all in them.

If you master this Secret District to the Ruby level before 3/3/2013 11:59 AM PST, you can reset your progression for 50 RP without losing your loot and rewards, which will let you master this Secret District again. You can reset your progression a maximum of 3 times, and can earn mastery rewards a maximum of 4 times. You will also get 1 Skill Point on completing every job.

Buy Crates and collect items to complete Crate Carnival, and win an amazing reward and Skill Points.

** Note; There IS NO SET NUMBER OF CRATES ONE HAS TO PURCHASE TO MASTER THE CRATE CARNIVAL.

At 54% Off the High Rollers Pack STILL costs $149……..Originally it cost $320. LMFAO….. Uhhh, no thank you. I pre-ordered the EA Deluxe SimCity for a little more than half the sale price and I’ll get an entire game.

Purchase the Arena Power Up Pack for 50 RP and earn a limited time Stats Boost to increase your stats.

Translation; You can waste 50 of your RP if you have an ego problem. Keyword; waste!

At 60% off I could purchase the Arena Mega Pack for $79. Uhhh, again no thank you. I pre-ordered the EA Deluxe SimCity for about the same price and I’ll get an entire game.

Either you have to buy your way through the mission or buy the shit you need in the Arena or you get damn lucky or you already have a high energy, stamina, attack, defense, etc account. I gave up. It’s BULLSHIT one way or the other.

For 35 RP, If you haven’t done so already, you could replay The Obelisk Of Sao Paulo. Easily the best deal listed. However, Zynga might quit re-releasing the pay-to-play districts.

Haven't recieved skill points from the punches you earned earlier? Don't worry. Get one more punch on your reward card and you'll receive your unrewarded Skill Points.

If that doesn’t make you stop and go huh? wuh? nothing will. Zynga is obviously stating that we want your money but they may not give you what you purchased unless you bitch about it.

Also, no indication anywhere as to how much this will ultimately cost you. That is not without doing some research or opening a pop-up window for the recent RP sales. Many players even wait for RP sales of 50% off before ever considering this. 

Then there is the Collectable Stat Cards. It has been said that in order to collect all the cards in just one set could cost a player anywhere from 700 to 1300 RP. Possibly more if that player has bum-luck. At the extreme minimum it would cost 375 RP’s (assuming a different card was received for each single-card purchased).

Then there is Ice Season and the new Research Facility that could cost players.

All this on top of the $25 a month VIP Membership.

We have to wonder, where is the game at in Mafia Wars? Is there even a game at all anymore? Is it just a contest of who can spend the most money? Is it a game of who can spend the most time playing? What are your thoughts? What do you find fun about Mafia Wars? Why do you still play this game that is nearly impossible to play without a credit card?