Social gaming was high on the agenda today at the World Gaming Executive Summit in Barcelona, Spain.
A blog from William Hill chief Ralph Topping outlining his company’s reasons for choosing not to enter the social gaming sector prompted a debate over whether the sector should be regulated.
During a panel discussion, Julien Codorniou, head of European gaming partnerships at Facebook Europe, said regulating social gaming was not a decision for the social network to make.
Other members of the panel felt that the sector should not be regulated.
Henning Kosmack of social gaming firm MegaZebra said that because there is no pay-out from such games, the sector is just another form of entertainment like any other and therefore does not require regulation.
Hussein Chahine of Yazino, meanwhile, said that if social gaming was to be regulated, the whole digital sector would have to be regulated as well, which, the suggestion was, would seem heavy handed.
The debate over the regulation of social gaming is a “knee-jerk reaction,” said Hal Bringman of Double Down, a leading social gaming company.
It is a debate that is sure to rumble on, however, with others within the industry suggesting that social gaming poses questions about the need to set limits on spending to potentially counter addiction.
Is it gambling? That's certainly a question for the regulatory bodies to consider.
