Zynga officially out of online gambling in Nevada, for now

US Poker reports that Zynga has officially withdrawn its application for a gambling license in the state of Nevada, reinforcing the company's recent decision to back away from real-money gaming for the time being. Online gambling is recently legal in the state, with brick-and-mortar casino chain Station Casinos being the first company to take advantage of the new regulation. New Jersey and Delaware have similar legislation in the pipeline, though Nevada remains the only state to have enacted such a law. However, under new CEO (and former Xbox boss) Don Mattrick the company has indicated that it is stepping away from real-money gambling in the U.S. for the time being, instead choosing to focus on improving its free-to-play social game lineup. "Zynga is making the focused choice not to pursue a license for real money gaming in the United States," the company confirmed in July. "[However] Zynga will continue to evaluate all of its priorities against the growing market opportunity in free, social gaming, including social casino offerings." As Zynga also noted at the time, this move does not affect its forays into the real-money gaming market in the U.K.