Mobile social gambling: Poker’s next frontier

Abstract

In this paper, we provide a history, analysis, and theorization of the emergence of mobile social gambling—a new form of media and cultural practice that fuses “social gambling” and “social gaming,” with the affordances of mobile platforms and social networking sites. Through the use of apps in mobile devices, the consumption of risk is experiencing a shift from space-bound betting to itinerant practices that open new spaces for leisure and socialization. Focusing on a case study of the mobile app Zynga Poker, this paper attempts to identify and describe these “leakages” in the “magic circle” of gambling, which bring together social gaming and longstanding gambling cultures and practices. Our argument is that mobile gambling on smartphones and tablets extends earlier cultural practices associated with gambling activities such as poker, and much deeper into the realm of the everyday. The expansion of gambling practices into the realm of the everyday, however, poses manifold ethical, cultural, and political implications: the availability of gambling products to minors and other vulnerable populations; increased normalization of wagering as entertainment; and the merging of gambling and mobile gaming industries and markets. Digital gambling is a pressing area for future study in mobile media and communication.