Balatro Dev jokes about adding loot boxes to lower 18 age rating, highlighting the "real gambling" EA Sports FC gets away with

Balatro, which was a runner up for The Game Awards' Game of the Year award, is certainly a popular game. However, for months now it's been plagued with a black mark of sorts on digital storefronts. This, a Pegi 18 rating indicating the game is for adults only, remains after months of pushback, despite other games with real gambling staying up at a 3+ rating. Earlier today, the solo dev of Balatro brought issue to the issue yet again.

LocalThunk did so through a joke of sorts, musing on Twitter if Balatro's rating would go down to a 3+ rating "like EA Sports FC" if he added microtransactions/loot boxes/real gambling. This, obviously not a serious suggestion, nonetheless points to a ratings problem among the video game industry.

Pegi - the Pan European Game Information rating system - is a widely used ratings sytem used in the region to provide rough guidance to consumers on what sort of content is featured in games. The official Pegi website provides insight into what a game needs to do to warrant an 18+ rating, and as you can see Balatro's problem stems from a small slice of the wider guidelines. If this all sounds a touch familar, the official Balatro account made a statement back in March following the game's sudden removal from stores and its abrupt change from a 3+ rating to 18+.

"The adult classification is applied when the level of violence reaches a stage where it becomes a depiction of gross violence, apparently motiveless killing, or violence towards defenceless characters. The glamorisation of the use of illegal drugs and of the simulation of gambling, and explicit sexual activity should also fall into this age category."

On the official Balatro Pegi listing, we can confirm that it's Balatro's connection to Poker hands, and the winning of chips, that has drawn Pegi's ire.

"This game teaches - by way of images, information and gameplay - skills and knowledge that are used in poker. During gameplay, the player is rewarded with ‘chips’ for playing certain hands. The player is able to access a list of poker hand names. As the player hovers over these poker hands, the game explains what types of cards the player would need in order to play certain hands. As the game goes on, the player becomes increasingly familiar with which hands would earn more points. Because these are hands that exist in the real world, this knowledge and skill could be transferred to a real-life game of poker."

Does this, however, equate to a "simulation of gambling"? That's the question, and that's a question everyone should disect themselves. Personally speaking, I don't see the harm in teaching poker hands, as long as the game itself doesn't allow for gambling, potentially kicking off a gambling addition.

But, as LocalThunk points out, this debate is rather silly when you consider that other games with actual gambling remain on the store with a 3+ rating. EA FC 25, which LocalThunk specifically highlights, contains loot boxes which you can buy for in-game currency. Lootboxes, in case you don't know, are microtransactions with inherent random chance. You buy one, and maybe you'll get the card you want. Whether or not these are considered gambling has been a hot debate over the past few years.

The UK government hasn't gone as far as it define them as gambling yet, but it has established rules requiring parental controls so concerned parents can stop their children from buying them. The European parliment, a governing body which rules over Pegi's turf so to speak, hasn't classified them as gambling either. Individual countries like Belgium and The Netherlands have banned them however. It's a country-by-country situation.

What this means is that games that feature loot boxes, which do open up all sorts of doors to reckless spending and maybe even gambling tendencies, are in this technological gray area. Not quite gambling, at least not enough to warrant widespread legal changes. Balatro however has committed the sin of using playing cards, which even the oldest of politicians will recongise.

Will the situation change? Probably not, at least not in the near future. Widespread changes to storefronts would require a huge push from various groups across the globe. Balatro's situation looks equally dire, with Pegi seeming steadfast in its decision to push the game to an 18+ rating back in March. A shame too. It's a great game with a bright red warning that could scare off parents. Fingers crossed that somehow, we end up with Balatro on top.