How does Zynga hunt for whales?
gamesindustry.biz
gamesindustry.biz
I don't know if the state of California would be interested in antagonizing a business like Zynga and their likes, because presumably they contribute to the tax base, but I find it repulsive that such businesses are seemingly unregulated simply because they don't pay out cash.
The push to give them special treatment didn't take off until the Facebook tax appeared; at that point it became important to move big spenders to a separate payment channel without the 30% skim.
It was hard to understand what whales were doing because the games were so far from gambling; there was no legal way to cash out, and even goods sales were policed. Money spent was clearly for amusement purposes only.
These were people who spent thousands of dollars leveling up in Mafia Wars. The interpretation at the time was that these were affluent individuals who simply enjoyed competing with money.