News broke this week that YouTube has been demonetizing videos featuring the game Balatro to protect kids from “gambling”. I’ve been thinking about it a lot this week. Is a game like this gambling? Where do we draw the line on protecting kids from bad gaming mechanics?
https://somegadgetguy.com/2025/04/11/is-balatro-gambling-maybe-i-have-this-all-wrong/
#tech #technology #gaming #videogames #geek #gambling #video #youtube #PCGaming
There is very explicitly no gambling in any way in the game. It very loosely uses rules from something like N-Card Draw Poker, but that is the only connection.
No, point go up, no bet point for more point.
Such a weird line being drawn for “gambling” in a video game. Is the game based on a casino table game? Yea, the same way Rocket League resembles soccer. Speaking of which, I don’t remember YouTube “protecting the kids” back when Rocket League had YouTubers dedicated to opening loot boxes for content. I’m talking literal online casinos where the pot was replaced with Rocket League cosmetics. I also don’t see demonetization of pack opening channels for literally any other game. In fact, I’ve seen them on the front page of YouTube Kids. I’m not really defending whether or not Balatro “can influence a child to research poker” because realistically it can, kids are impressional and have unrestricted access to the internet. But gateways like case openings and cosmetic trading are equal gateways. Really feels like YouTube wants a really easy win in the parent blogs. “We don’t allow your kids to watch poker” is a free headline for them to get the FTC (and international org. equivalents) off their back
In the video, I feel I’ve laid out an argument for how RNG in free games is demonstrably worse than what Balatro is doing.
We’ll see if it gets any good chatter. The video is already dead on YouTube, so that was a lot of work down the drain…
@[email protected] nothing like people with no interest in understanding and mostly just looking to be “tough on something”, "taking action. "
FOR THE CHILDREN
OR THE VULNERABLE
OR SOMETHING
BUT I’M BEING TOUGH!As you mention, games such as Future Fight pose a much greater threat to con kids and adults (I played for a while), into sinking large sums of money into something for little chance of a reward. Much like slot machines, large sums of money and hundreds of hours of research are put into making those lights and noises act in a way to hook people, little pay-outs to keep you involved etc etc
@[email protected] it’s pretty vile. We’re just running this huge scamming experiment on human brains, and when people are hurt by it, we act like it’s some moral failing of the individual.
Yeah this is messed up. YouTube is definitely messing with this topic. Searching with my alt account, it wouldn’t show under “balatro”. I had to use the whole title exactly for it to pop up. Apparently, TALKING about the issue is enough for YT to mute you.
I HATE playing that stupid game of rotating thumbnails and changing titles, but I’ve tried shaking this up. It still hasn’t hit .5% of my subscriber count.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vJjHbMMhqg
YouTube actively interrupts the relationship between creator and audience. I dont know why I bother anymore…
