While I often joke that Balatro is a secret mental prison that has consumed the minds, hearts, and souls of about half of PC Gamer’s staff, that’s only in jest. Balatro is, both up and down, extremely solid value for money – an inexpensive indie game with no microtransactions or paid DLC, and despite its poker aesthetic, zero interest in promoting gambling behavior. Unless you ask the pan-European Gaming Information Rating System, which has rated it 18+.
Balatro developer LocalThunk went to X overdue last week to question the decision: writing: “Since PEGI gave us an 18+ rating for having bad playing cards, maybe I should add microtransactions/loot boxes/real gambling to bring it down to a 3+ like EA Sports FC.”
For context, Balatro’s PEGI rating very directly cites the game’s exploit of poker mechanics as an issue—stating that this “teaches – through images, information and gameplay – the skills and knowledge that are used in poker… this knowledge and skills can be transferred to the real game of poker.”
The hypocrisy that LocalThunk condemns is this EA Sports FC 25a game with microtransactions in the form of “random packs of cards and other game elements”, is apparently suitable for 3-year-olds. Looking at it, the game at least seems to directly inform you about the chances of getting players in different packages – but the point is that in one of these games you actually “play” for real money, and in the other you don’t.
“Just to clarify.” LocalThunk adds“I’m much more annoyed by the 3+ rating for these games with actual kid gambling mechanics than I am by the fact that Balatro is rated 18+. If these other games were rated correctly, I would happily accept an 18+ weirdo. The red logo looks pretty good.”
To play devil’s advocate, the PEGI rating is at least internally consistent. According to grading system websitefrom 2020, a game that can be considered as “encouraging or teaching gambling” is automatically a game for people over 18 years of age. Technically, Balatro is teaching you Some the basic rules of poker – even if it has little to do with the game itself – while you can’t fix your loot box outside of the game you’re playing. It’s not like real casinos offer winnings for D.Va skins.
However, whether this assessment is fair or effective is another matter entirely. In 2019, a researcher from York St. John University has linked video game loot boxes to problem gambling, stating that “the more money people spend on loot boxes, the more serious their gambling problem is. This is not just my research. This is an effect that has been replicated many times around the world by many independent laboratories.” In context, “problem gambling” refers to a factual situation conduct disorder related to gambling. In other words, problem players will sink money into gacha games just like they would into real slots; anime girls or chilly strenuous cash, it doesn’t matter.
I think there’s a very sturdy argument to be made here that the PEGI rating system is a bit obsolete, especially if loot boxes have sturdy ties to real-world gambling conditions – which is more risky, a game that teaches some of the rules of a real-world gambling card game without a gambling element, or a game where you pay real money for footie gacha? Or real gacha. Genshin Impact is rated 12+.
I especially feel sorry for LocalThunk, considering the guy is so anti-gambling that he has it in him will be that casinos cannot make copies of his game. He doesn’t even like poker – neither do I, for the record, although I love Balatro, even if I’m cursed with incredible bad luck. I only needed a four, man. I had about three around my waist. That’s why I don’t go to Vegas.
