Social gaming to be investigated by UK Gambling Commission

Bingo has always been the most social of gambling past-times. Compared to sports betting, casino and poker, it trumps the lot. You can bet on the horses by yourself, you can play roulette on your own and you can get a game of Texas Hold'em going with just a few friends.

Bingo, on the other hand, only works if a decent-size group of players come together. And what better forum for bingo to be played on than social networks such as Facebook with its community feel and huge userbase.

As we reported last week, Zynga Bingo recently became the fastest growing game on Facebook. So it's not a case of bingo one day becoming big on social networks...it already is.

Which is why news that the UK Gambling Commission are investigating social gaming and whether it should be regulated is such an important development for the online bingo industry. Regulation could potentially cut heavily into gaming operators' pockets.

There are clearly big amounts of money at stake on this. Only the other day Bwin Party announced it would be investing over £30 million into a new social gaming unit to distribute its own games on social networks.

Watch this space for more developments.