Children and The Effects of Gambling in Video Games

Ryan Burg

rb620917@ohio.edu

 

Video games have been evolving for years. From Pac-Man to Fortnite there have been many changes throughout the video game industry. When I first started playing, if I wanted to play a video game with my friends I would have to invite them over to do so. Nowadays, kids can have the opportunity to play online with each other whenever they want to.

With video games evolving, they are also getting a lot more competitive. There are a couple of different ways you can play online video games, either casually or competitively. Those who want to play it casually play it for pleasure and the pure enjoyment of the game. Competitive players battle online opponents for top rank spots in the game. 

With all of this in mind, a lot of games now give the option for the player to spend money to get an advantage on their opponents such as "packs" or "boxes" that can hold rare items in the game. With that being said, you don't always get what you're bargaining for. 

For example, games such as FIFA and Madden allow you to spend real money for in-game income like, for example, coins to buy packs or boxes. Companies can also grab your attention when they have holiday-themed packs for new items in the game. So you know if you don't have it, someone else will.

Card packs or boxes are usually portrayed to have the rare items in them by showing off the players they can earn on the packs or boxes themselves, but it's always a smaller percentage of getting that specific item. They have a larger chance of getting a more common item that isn't worth the purchase that they're spending. This can cause kids to keep trying in getting the item by continuously gamble in getting the rare item buying the pack until they get it. This can really affect children to try and gamble to get the best item without them even knowing it.

According to the British Broadcasting Company in 2019, "Four children spent nearly £550 in three weeks buying player packs to play the FIFA football video game online on the family's Nintendo Switch console."

Picture source: The Conversation 

A big influence on encouraging these antics for young children is specifically YouTubers. Many video game lovers want to start their gaming platform somewhere and it's usually on the huge platform of YouTube. There are many YouTubers out there that play competitively on these games so they try their best to win and entertain. One part of their entertainment is also when they buy packs. If there is a new item in the game, people want to see it be used and sometimes they don't want to make the payments for it and rather watch someone else try to win it and use it instead. On the other hand, it can also encourage other kids to try and win the item as well because they see how cool and popular it is in the game.

There are also YouTubers out there that have sponsors on their channels that help encourage gamers to buy coins from their sponsors instead so they can make revenue. They'll usually have it at the beginning of the video as well, so new viewers will most likely watch it.

According to Business Insider "On Thursday, the House of Lords published a report on the harms of gambling, which found that in the UK there are 55,000 problem gamblers aged between 11 and 15."

They know that they have a broad audience to make money off of, but what they don't realize is that they are causing kids to gamble their money just so they can have fun and compete in the game.