Wednesday July 31,2013 : REALNETWORKS LAUNCHES REAL-MONEY SOCIAL CASINO GAMING
GameHouse has been on the cards since earlier this year
Back in March this year Seattle-based RealNetworks publicised its intention to get into the social gambling scene on Facebook with a free-to-play product titled GameHouse Casino, featuring over a dozen games
This week the company took the product a step further with its announcement that it has launched real-money action through GameHouse Plus, with monthly sweepstake draws of up to $100,000 to incentivise players.
RealNetworks founder and interim CEO Rob Glaser told the Casual Connect conference in San Francisco:
"The social casino space is ripe for innovation. Now all games on GameHouse Casino Plus – slots, video poker, blackjack, and roulette – will offer players the opportunity to collect Golden Tickets, which they can use to enter the Golden Dreams Sweepstakes and have a chance to win $100,000.
"This goes far beyond the industry standard of virtual coin rewards and makes a fun game even more exciting."
How RealNetworks plans to circumvent the current US legal antipathy to real-money gambling online or on mobile is not clear, but it presumably sees plenty of opportunity elsewhere in social gaming.
A RealNetworks spokesman revealed that mobile versions of GameHouse Plus are being developed.