No, most revenue was just people buffing their FarmVille plots. The company aimed away from online gambling or even hardcore gaming.

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.