But it's still troubling in the same way loot boxes are troubling. The act of betting and winning is the same in a game as it is in real life.Ĭreating a virtual casino like this for GTA Online Rockstar's right, of course.

Introducing more young people to gambling with real money can only cause more problems. Gambling online is already very much a reality and can lead to all the same problems people face gambling in brick-and-mortar casinos. However, the same rules don't apply to other behaviors.

These are all essentially fake experiences that don't mirror real-world ones in any meaningful way (a controller is not like a gun an in-game 'high' is not like doing drugs, etc.). I don't think the act of shooting virtual guns at enemies made up of pixels and animations leads people to cause harm in the real world or that taking virtual drugs in a game leads to real drug abuse. I don't believe that games like GTA cause real-world violence or transform players into misogynists. While it might not be as bad as real gambling, it still strikes me as a bad idea with potentially bad consequences. Allowing players to purchase chips is worse. Honestly, a game with only virtual chips (that you can only earn via gameplay and can't purchase with real money) would still be something of a 'gateway drug' for addicts or potential addicts.

Yes, the game is 18+, but I'm not sure that makes it any better. There's no doubt that this would be a more addictive, potentially life-ruining experience for many players.īut even having the option to gamble real money in a virtual in-game casino, even when it never results in actually earning real winnings, poses its own ethical issues. That's probably a good thing-after all, if you could gamble real money for virtual chips and then cash that out for real money it would quite literally be gambling.

Virtual casino online