Is real-money gambling the next big thing for social games? Facebook certainly seems to be leaning that way: yesterday saw the launch of publisher Gamesys’ Bingo Friendzy in the UK – the first Facebook game to allow people to win real cash prizes. More will follow.

“People love playing new types of games with their friends on Facebook and real money gaming is a popular leisure activity in the UK,” says Facebook’s head of EMEA gaming partnerships Julien Codorniou. Judging by reactions on Twitter – remember, a niche of the population still – a lot of people feel uncomfortable with the idea of Facebook gambling.

That said, is paying real money to try to win real prizes in a Facebook game that much more murky than paying real money for virtual chips in play-for-fun Facebook games (Zynga Poker, for example) where there’s never a chance of a payout? Either way, it will be very interesting to see if gambling is ripe for social disruption in the same way traditional gaming was.

More – http://tinyurl.com/d5s8o5u