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Comment by hrnn | Hacker News Reader

Good but not enough if it doesn't target social casinos. I was shocked to learn that people pay for fake money to spend in virtual slot machines. You win fake money that you can't cash out. That is 0 RTP while realm money casinos must have over 90% - and they're still cashing in insane money.

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Not that I like these casinos, but what you are describing sounds like the definition of a video game.

That's an important consideration when deciding how to write regulations.

This is probably similar to alcohol regulations. It's not illegal to sell booze to say, a 35 year old housewife in a lot of places. But when she's too drunk to remember her own name often now it's illegal to sell her more booze. Lots of people enjoy booze, what she's doing is no longer enjoying booze. She's got a problem and so we decide it's illegal to make that problem worse.

As with booze, for some people these things have no pull. I feel no desire to drink booze, and I also feel no desire to buy video game coins. But that's fine, the regulations aren't about me. Regulations protect the vulnerable.

What would a regulation look like here? Just a ban of casino style games?

It'd be cool if a nonprofit free to play alternative was set up to cut into some of the damage these do.

For example if your customers are spending more than a certain amount you need to show that you understood what they could afford to be spending and weren't allowing this to become a problem.

You can choose then, the simple option is our customers can't spend enough to go over that line, the potentially more lucrative but difficult option is check on your "whales" and only allow those who match affordability criteria.

The problem is those "games" are still praying on people with addiction issues even if they have no payout.

As far as I'm aware, the addiction is on gambling. If there is no money return, there is literally no gambling occurring.

I'm strongly against lootboxes and very concerned about videogames that are effectively casinos, but what the op described is just a videogame

I am not against gambling. I enjoy it myself on occasion, and I would not ban it. But still idea of gambling for money without chance to win money back... That just feels next step exploitation.

I do understand the dopamine process of demo games on casino sites, but still. Allowing people to pay for that...

From my understanding, the part that triggers the addiction is the possibility of winning money, so removing that seems to remove entirely the incentive.

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