Do we control ourselves? Gambling addicts show by example that we are not. A reddit user under the nickname Kensgold told and showed that he spent more than $13,000 on microtransactions in games for 6 years. The question is - are there similar to what no deposit bonus casinos are offering or not.
The first year he spent his pocket money and savings to buy power-ups and pump up heroes, then he got a job at a restaurant so he could have money for games. Then he got a second job and almost got kicked out of school because of it. He continued to spend his entire paycheck on microtransactions. Kensgold always realized that he was wasting money on microtransactions, but he just couldn't stop. When his mom tried to cut off his internet, he switched to smartphone gaming.
Even when he switched to Counter-Strike and Smite, where in-game purchases don't affect gameplay, he still continued to spend huge amounts of money on power-ups - he just couldn't stop if the game had an in-game purchase option and wasn't able to ignore it. The only way for Kensgold to kick his addiction was to give up micropayment games altogether and seek professional help from a therapist. "No one stops at the first purchase" states Kensgold.
Kensgold does not directly blame studios and developers in his letter, but calls for reflection on the impact on the fates of teenagers. Coincidentally, the day after the publication of Kensgold's open letter, Electronic Arts removed microtransactions from Star Wars Battlefront II. This happened a few hours before the global release of this multiplayer shooter. The immediate reason for canceling the purchase of in-game currency (crystals) was the protests of fans of the game on the unfair advantage in buyers. That's most likely the case. But Kensgold's letter was addressed just to EA studio and was posted in StarWarsBattlefron thread, and lawyers' involvement in such cases on the background of general bad PR background for the USA is a common thing and the developers could well decide not to tempt fate.
Moreover, the long-standing discontent of players Electronic Arts did not end with the disabling of direct monetization in Star Wars Battlefront II, now critics are calling on Disney to deprive the publisher of the rights to release games in the "Star Wars" franchise.
A little later, the topic was developed in a statement from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a group that represents major gaming companies such as Nintendo, Microsoft and Take-Two. The point of the statement is that purchases in games cannot be considered a form of gambling, as they are a voluntary option. This is also because according to their data:
67% of parents play video games with their children at least once a week.
71% of parents believe that video games have a positive impact on their child's life.
Gambling addiction is not a new phenomenon. The same situation has been and is happening with slot machines. Computers haven't changed much here.
Here is the beginning of a letter of a typical gaming addict of the pre-computer era with 15 years of experience, who lost money for his wedding:
EA intends to bring back micropayments in Star Wars Battlefront II when the scandal settles down, and there's an understandable economic reason for the intention. A few days before Kensgold's letter, another popular studio Take-Two decided to add microtransactions to all of its new releases because the ability to make in-game purchases brings publishers more money than the sales of the games themselves.
Doctors clearly consider game addiction a disease and have placed it in the major classification of diseases. In the ICD-10 International Classification of Diseases, "Pathological Attraction to Gambling" is one of the diagnoses of psychological disorders.
The description of the diagnosis says that if a person has become a pathological gambler, he will never be able to return to what he started with, even after treatment: to play "a little bit", "sometimes", "for his own pleasure". He will never be able to control his game, he will never be able to play in such a way that it does not bring any problems to him and his real environment.