New Jersey’s move came five days after Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed a similar bill legalizing interstate gambling online, which could take everyone a step closer to making Internet-based gambling, especially poker, accessible nationwide.
And since Sandoval signed off on Nevada’s online gambling law, betting on Zynga has surged. The company’s stock is up more than 20% in less than a week.
For now Zynga, best known for its games “Farmville”, “Cityville” and “Zynga Poker,” can’t crank up the slot machines and take actual online bets in the U.S. [It is, however, set to launch so-called “real money” poker online in the UK via a partnership with Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment in the second quarter of the year]. But that isn’t stopping investors, or industry analysts, from betting Zynga will eventually see a payoff from the nascent market for legalized online gambling.
On Wednesday, Joseph Stauff of Susquehanna Financial Group said Zynga is “likely to attract strategic interest over the next year” as a U.S. online gambling asset. He points to the fact that the company already has about 15 million U.S.-based online poker players, many of whom could be converted into paying gamblers if the opportunity arises.
“We view significant value in its U.S.-based stable of players where scale is necessary,” Stauff said, in a research note. “And only Caesar’s and Zynga have ‘current’ databases of online players.”
Stauff also called that potential opportunity for Zynga “significant” because most casinos claim a “rake,” or percentage, of all the money put into poker pots of between 5% and 10%.
Of course, since gambling is the subject, the odds on Zynga being able to offer legalized online betting are not set in stone. The New Jersey law, for instance only allows bettors that are physically present in the Garden 
State to gamble online. And the law legalizes only the online gambling services of Atlantic City casinos.
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