Social casino apps are an emergent genre in the app economy that sits at the intersection of three different industries: casino gambling, freemium mobile games, and social media platforms. This institutional position has implications for the social casino app’s political economy and culture of consumption. We argue that social casino apps are representative of a broader casualization of risk that has taken hold in a platform society. By combining the uncertainty and chance associated with gambling with the interruptibility, informality, and modularity of free-to-play mobile games, social casino apps offer complete contingency in how they are designed and played. Game progression and social networking features are used to normalize the relationship between the consumer of social casino apps and the contingency of their desired form of play. As a result, the experience of risk is no longer restricted to the casino floor and in fact becomes a part of one’s daily routine. This casualization of risk marks the next adaptation of the contingent cultural commodity, where nothing is guaranteed and everything is subject to chance.

社交娱乐场应用程序是应用程序经济中的新兴类型，它位于三个不同行业的交汇处：娱乐场赌博，免费增值手机游戏和社交媒体平台。这种机构地位对社交娱乐场应用程序的政治经济和消费文化具有影响。我们认为社交娱乐场应用程序代表了平台社会所承担的范围更广的风险。通过将与赌博相关的不确定性和机会与免费手机游戏的可打扰性，非正式性和模块化相结合，社交赌场应用程序在设计和玩法上提供了完全的偶然性。游戏进程和社交网络功能用于规范社交娱乐场应用程序的消费者与其期望的游戏形式的偶然性之间的关系。结果，冒险经历不再局限于娱乐场，而实际上已成为人们日常工作的一部分。风险的这种分散标志着偶然性文化商品的下一次适应，在这种情况下，没有任何东西可以保证，万事万物都有机会。