888.com to offer real money gambling on Facebook

888.com to offer real money gambling on Facebook

December 10, 2013

888.com announced a few days ago that it had entered into an agreement to offer real money gambling on premier social media site Facebook:

Contract for Real Money Gaming on Facebook

12 December 2012

888 Holdings Public Limited Company

888, one of the world's most popular online gaming entertainment and solution providers, announced today that it has entered, through a wholly owned subsidiary, into an agreement with Facebook to launch real-money products over the world's most popular social network.

The agreement will see 888 offer its award-winning real-money bingo, casino and slot games through the Facebook platform in the UK.

Utilising 888's existing social facing operation, the first app to launch is bingo, with a casino offering including slots and other popular games to follow shortly.

They sign off the announcement with an apparent assurance about "responsibility":

888 is a leader in corporate responsibility, with specialist websites dedicated to both responsible gaming and corporate responsibility so that customers can play in a safe and secure environment.

I suspect this will not turn out well for anyone apart from 888.com and Facebook. The social networking site has an audience of tens of millions of underage customers, many of whom will struggle to differentiate between the current play money games on offer and their real money counterparts. According to Mark Griffiths, professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University in an interview with the Daily Telegraph:

Facebook casino gambles with children, say critics

You win virtually every time you play one of the free games. Research has shown again and again that one of the biggest factors in developing problem gambling is playing free games online first. These children and teenagers today are the problem gamblers of tomorrow.

The article concludes with a gloomy statistic:

Studies have estimated that gambling addicts are losing around £300 million a year, with young men aged between 16 and 24 the most likely to fall into this group.

Statistics aside, certain things are indisputable: that Facebook and 888.com will make a lot of money from this venture - profits in the form of losses accrued via the gambling products; and that, irrespective of 888's canned assurances about "responsibility", a proportion of those losses will be to underage gamblers, particularly given Facebook's popularity in the youth market.

I don't think this is anything for anyone other then Facebook and 888 to celebrate.

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