PEGI gives Balatro an 18+ rating for gambling imagery

Clown emojis all around

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Loot boxes suck but the only thing separating this game from gambling is the use of real money. It's literally a poker game.
This is the Steam Store description -
Combine valid poker hands with unique Joker cards in order to create varied synergies and builds. Earn enough chips to beat devious blinds, all while uncovering hidden bonus hands and decks as you progress. You’re going to need every edge you can get in order to reach the boss blind, beat the final ante and secure victory.
Yeah they were always going to get PEGI 18. This moaning is just a way to sell their game.
- In Balatro, the Ante is the boss's health and chips are the amount of damage done to a boss. The poker hands are just attacks done to the boss's health. They use poker terms because it's inspired by card games, not because there's gambling.
  
  The only gambling in this game is picking the goddamn wheel card even though I know it's going to give me "nope!"
  
  I didn't say there was and neither did PEGI. The issue is all the terminology and visuals are gambling related. This is like giving a cigarette smoker a nicotine vape and saying it's not cigarettes. It's technically true but you'd be insane to authorize it for kids.
  
  The whole point of the post is real gambling is rated as totally safe for kids. As long as it doesn't use card or poker chips as imagery. Why is getting kids to actually gamble ok? Why is imagery associated with gambling so much worse than actual gambling for kids?
  
  No the whole point of this post is performative outrage as marketing. They knew exactly what rating a faux casino game was going to get them.
  
  This analogy is garbage. The "nicotine vape for kids" isn't Balatro, it's loot boxes. Balatro would be like candy cigarettes.
  
  Funny you should mention candy cigarettes.
  Whether it's candy cigarettes or a nicotine vape depends purely on the person playing the game. A gambling addict could easily see this as their nicotine vape, and it could easily prime kids for casinos.
  
  A good link, maybe image may be harmful even if it's without context
  
  You meant "chocolate cigarette" for your analogy, I remember they used to exists when I was a kid, don't know if they still do.
  
  Funny you should mention candy cigarettes.
  Whether it's candy cigarettes or a nicotine vape depends purely on the person playing the game. A gambling addict could easily see this as their nicotine vape, and it could easily prime kids for casinos.
- Yahtzee uses "valid poker hands" and dice for scoring too. They sell that in toy stores.
  
  Yatzhee is dice. It uses combinations of numbers. They turn into points. Before you make any other ridiculous comparisons the idea is to perform to standard. Not to lower the standard. Gambling is a serious addiction and making games about it is a serious issue.
  
  You can't gamble with dice?
  
  I played Yahtzee once and now I hustle back alley Craps foe drug money.
  
  If you want to be reductive everything is gambling. Even your birth.
  
  I mean the kinds of gambling that might trigger someone with a gambling addiction. Isn't that where you were coming from?
  
  Yatzhee is dice.
  So is craps, one of the most popular casino games on the planet.
- So then explain why games with actual real money gambling aren't rated 18+, is gambling "imagery" with no gambling really that much worse than having actual gambling?
  
  Ask PEGI why loot boxes aren't rated 18+, I'm not defending them.
- It's literally not.
- These games not only have poker in the name, they are literally casino sims, and you play against other players:
  https://store.steampowered.com/app/384180/Prominence_Poker/
  https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP2070-CUSA01104_00-UPUREPOKER000001/
  Both pegi 12. Your argument is flawed.
  
  Two wrongs don't make a right.
- Balatro doesn't have anything like gambling. There's no betting. You don't even have an opponent. The chips are only points, and the goal is to get as high a score as you can. The rules vary wildly from poker in ways that could never work with multiple players, let alone with real cards. It just looks like poker at the start and that description helps give you an initial idea of how to play.

191 comments