Zynga will abandon its efforts to build a gaming business in the United States, a move that could extend the struggling company's lifeline. The announcement came Thursday as the company behind popular games such as "FarmVille" reported that it lost 40 percent of its monthly active users in the second quarter.

Chief executive Don Mattrick said that he needed more time to review Zynga's roadmap and that he intended to take the company "back to basics" with an emphasis on free-to-play games on Apple's iOS and Google's Android mobile devices, as well as tried-and-true franchises like FarmVille.

Zynga previous CEO was considering entering the gambling market and he hoped that Zynga could tap into a potentially lucrative new revenue stream by launching real-money casino games around the world even as its key games fell into decline.

Zynga reported $231 million in quarterly revenue on Thursday, a 31 percent decline from a year ago.

The number of active monthly players dropped to 187 million this quarter from 306 million a year ago.