Laurence Escalante is an Australian entrepreneur that aims to change the face of online gambling. His new development, Chumba Casino, is a free-play gambling app that is available on Facebook – and Mr Escalante is making plans to expand into the real-money gambling market. At the moment, Chumba Casino is a social gambling app that allows players to wager play-money on online pokies and table games.

Since no actual money is being wagered, players are not eligible for actual prizes. However, they can choose to spend money on in-game content like gifts and additional play money chips. Chumba Casino sets itself apart from other social casinos because it really focuses on the social aspect of the app.

Players can customize their own avatar with clothing, hair and facial features, and they can travel around Chumba’s virtual world to experience new games at different casinos. In order to generate revenue, Chumba Casino launched sweepstakes, which target American users.

Since sweepstakes are not defined as gambling in the United States, these promotions are perfectly legal. Before launching these promotions, Chumba Casino netted Mr Escalante just $.10 per user per day. Now, he is seeing increased revenue per patron, and hopes to earn $1 per user per day by 2014. He is also making plans to launch a real-money casino under the Chumba Brand.

He recently received an online gambling license from The Philippines in August. He will launch the casino on an external site, and he has announced that his main focus will still be on his Facebook application. Mr Escalante’s goal is to attract upwards of 100 000 daily users, but Chumba has a great deal of competition in the social gambling market.

Similar applications like Double Down Casino and Zynga Poker have millions of daily users, so it will be difficult for Chumba Casino to break into this niche market – but it is possible.

About the Author

George Anderson
Author George, has over 25+ years’ experience in the Pokies and Casinos industry throughout Australia and New Zealand. Loves to research new Pokies games on the block and follows announcements from top industry providers about their upcoming releases. As soon as a new interesting pokie game appears on his radar, George is there to check it out and give you the scoop before anyone else and tell you about all casino sites where can play the latest game. Before this gig, George worked as Pokie game tester, making him an ideal candidate for this genre of work. He is also an animal lover and a proud owner of three dogs.