A couple of years ago there was a study conducted here in the UK that found that over 25% of children had placed bets and gambled through ‘legal’ vendors. This shit is everywhere and it’s fucking horrifying.
Granted I don’t really play modern video games, but aren’t most titles for kids anymore filled with microtransactions and gambling like mechanics?
Yes.
Pretty much all of the biggest games with under 16s (Fortnite, Roblox, CoD etc) pay millions (if not tens of millions) to behavioural psychologists who basically all do the work under pseudonyms and strict NDAs to avoid legal liability and public condemnation.
But even then video games are the symptom not the disease… (This is gonna be long)
It’s been impossible to watch any sport for at least a decade without being bombarded with betting ads. When the sponsorship regulations lifted everything in sight (not just sports teams) became sponsored by betting companies. A lot of less prosperous towns have dozens of betting shops as the only profitable and consistently open business on high streets (main street) - this was sometimes true in the bad old days of ex pit villages but now is everywhere. Maybe 20% of all paid, non target advertising (TV, radio, online) here is gambling related. Every major satallite TV and broadband company has it’s own casino and gambling company, often prioritised and delivered to you as a customer whether you like it or not.
The gambling industry, more than even arms or landlordism, has totally taken over the funding of literally all MPs and politicians (often for embarrassing figures). Over a decade ago now, when my (shit, centrist melt) MP where I used to live lost their seat, the gambling industry paid them £3k a month to write four articles a year plus a white paper about how ‘the working class’ (which he was very much not a part of despite his attempts to pretend otherwise) saw regulation on gambling and help for addicts as patronising nanny statism. When said former MP was about to regain a small amount of influence in parliament they were immediately gifted three weeks in the US all expenses paid by a betting company lobby group.
Every new game thing is in a fucking loot box
Partially banned in Europe I think
God help us when AI is normalized and it brain fucks kids into stealing their parent’s credit cards and betting gigantic sums on credit and losing it all.
“But mum/mom - aiBuddy said ‘a little playing never hurt anybody’. And I didn’t know what ‘Press to refi your mortgage for instant credit’ meant.”
My niece racked up like $2k one day when she got ahold of her dad’s phone. Luckily they were able to get the charges reversed. But like…holy shit.
Damn, Juan Soto didn’t get a home run so no groceries this week
But dad - I’m hungry! And I don’t want to eat mac & cheese again!
Sorry, son. It’s… Well… Sometimes the free market throws you an unexpected curveball. And he - I mean, you strike out. A fucking curveball! Oh - don’t tell your mom I used the f-word.
Gambling apps are now nothing special. It’s funny to compare things to how things used to be. The Last Boy Scout came out ~35 years ago. For many young people a big part of the plot surely doesn’t make sense. The evil bad guy is trying to get senators to legalize sports gambling.
Now we just need a gambling debt addled football star to make a game winning dash to the endzone by shooting everyone on the defense. Then we’ll be all the way through the looking glass.
And I already had a dim view of Kroger …
Buying up lots of grocery chains ✅
Aggressively anti-union ✅
A lot of the rank and file are UFCW and the Kroger
is pretty decent
where’s my jug of gas? i need a shower
BetDSI.kroger
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