Games, Gacha, and Gambling: real-world consequences
Some gambling options available to children (Liam Winkelman/ The Puma Prensa)
Written By: Liam Winkelman, Website Editor
In game purchases. Most free games on the internet have these, and even paid ones too. The issue arises when these purchases in a game are for a loot box, a gamble for the rare item or skin. These are not only annoying but barely legal in the US and can cause issues with the brain.
Digital gambling in video games, otherwise known as gacha, originally came from the sound of cranking a slot machine. A gacha is a randomized generator that gives the player tools that can help them move forward in a game. Players have to pay with game money or real world currency and the items in a gacha can vary in rarity. Released in 2010, a video game called Konami’s Dragon Collection first introduced a gacha system where the player could obtain keys which acted as a currency to obtain different items, tiering in rarity and strength. Spreading throughout the digital world, the virtual lottery is found in games like CSGO, FIFA, and Brawl Stars.
Gambling services are often compared to drug or alcohol abuse because of the similar, if not identical neurological responses regarding addiction. But gamers continue to play the same way gamblers eagerly return to the slot machine. Brains are wired to keep returning to these bad habits because it produces the "feel good" hormone, dopamine, when it expects to receive a valuable item. With added sounds and flashy lights, game developers are able to draw in a vulnerable demographic: children and teenagers. Adolescents have a higher sensitivity for dopamine releases because their young brain development can be altered with excessive exposure to digital gambling. It's not winning that makes gambling addictive, it's the risk and stakes to gambling, and video games use gacha-like systems to manipulate players into wanting more.
Websites like Roblox– a site known for having a younger demographic, include games like Pet Simulator 99 that use bright flashy colors, sounds, and other manipulation tactics to encourage children to spend money. These work as manipulators as bright colors and sounds attract young children easier as their senses are still developing.
How is this legal or regulated? It falls under a legal gray area because prizes are items only offered in the game, and most ways to turn gold coins into real money are through other third party services. This makes the prizes not actual legal gains, so they cannot be prosecuted as legal gambling. In a lot of countries like the United Kingdom and France due to the European Union and regulations they have.
Although game currency is useless in the real world, money earned can be used to pay for online loot boxes, similar to gacha, providing a randomized chance at a rare item. Influencers like Drake and Twitch streamer Aiden Ross have the money to continuously open loot boxes which became a later issue with the creation of Stake.com — a gambling website that sponsored streamers to play traditional gambling like Slots and Plinko. The wide audience that viewed their favorite streamers, including teenagers and young children, were exposed and often encouraged to join the creator for the influencers profit.
With the legalization of sports gambling as well, many websites have gotten sponsorships with celebrities and athletes to advertise their services. These services also include free cash to get started with, which seems like a loss, but in reality it just brings in more people to gamble and become addicted, netting them millions of dollars through people’s addictions keeping them gambling for much longer. These services don't require enough safety for minors to prevent them from using them.