Caesars social gaming venture?

CAESARS Entertainment Corp said in a recent speech that they could benefit from social media gaming, according to Chief Executive Gary Loveman. Loveman described what he called “the continued remarkable growth of online social games” in remarks at a luncheon in downtown Boston. Although the Las Vegas company’s resort plans are often tied up in local proceedings, online games like those Caesars offers through its Playtika business face fewer rules.

“These games are legal for anyone to play anywhere in the world,” Loveman said. It’s been reported that Caesars has expressed their ambition in online gaming. This was reflected in a document filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We are not aware of another U.S. landbased casino company that owns an online gaming business,” the filing states. Though many online players spend money mostly for fun and not for wagers, as at casinos, Loveman reminded journalists after his talk of the IPO of gamemaker Zynga Inc in December best known for games like Farmville.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Loveman spent much of his talk on Tuesday arguing criticism of the growing casino industry is overblown and that new casinos do not boost crime or take advantage of poorer customers.

He did say about 1 percent of the population is prone to gambling addiction. “We have to deal with that,” he said.

Loveman spoke just months after Massachusetts officials approved a bill to allow casinos, and began a process to select operators for three of them. Caesars has a partnership with a Boston-area racetrack to create one of the facilities. Depending on the design of the facilities, about 40 percent of their revenue could be captured from neighboring states, he said.