American Company to Launch a Real Money Gambling App in UK

Big Fish Games online gaming developer is based in Seattle and operates in full compliance with American gambling laws. However, the company is looking for a more liberal gambling jurisdiction to launch its casino app.

With debates around online casinos in United States still in full swing, Big Fish Games moves onto the UK market. The company will launch its real money iOS application within the next three weeks in Britain.

The app will be available through the Apple App Store. All financials will flow through Betable, a British company, which partnered up with Big Fish. The software developer is creating digital version of Las Vegas gambling establishments for players to enjoy.

Members of mobile casinos in United States and worldwide are estimated to wager around $100 billion on an annual basis come 2017. The same estimates last year stood only at $20 billion a year.

Christopher Griffin, CEO at Betable, shared with the media: “This is the biggest opportunity that game developers have had since the advent of the Internet.” Also noting that internet social gaming giant Zynga is still considering plans to venture into real money gambling.

Griffin let it slip that his enterprise is working closely together with a number of other companies in the sector as well.

Tom Neumayr, Apple spokesman, told media that his company is not taking planning on taking a cut of gambling sales. He revealed that the games are permitted in the App Store as long as they comply with local regulations.

CEO of Big Fish, Paul Thelen, also commented: “Apple wants to keep arms’ length from this. They don’t want to be the middleman in a gambling operation.”

Lots of customers already pay real money in exchange for virtual currency in Big Fish games. They bet on poker, slots and other games of chance, though they cannot take out their winnings. These players are very likely to flock to real money gambling according to Thelen.