Jack and the Beanstalk and other childish games to be removed?

[Nicola]

British betting companies are facing calls from leading industry regulators to remove hundreds of casino games or face sanctions in the biggest crackdown on the industry yet. Children's cartoon characters, such as Peter Pan and Jack and the Beanstalk, were used to promote their games online with stakes between 1p and £600.

More than 450 online gambling sites received four-page letter to pull the games (If true that is more than 80% of the total of UKGC licensed sites)

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[goatwack]

Again, this is a good move I believe because companies were making their games too kiddie-friendly of late. No one can deny being somewhat sick of the infantile themes being churned out annually.

Thing is that companies will still make great looking games to appeal to minors...we're not likely to see Thunderstruck 1 and its ilk being the future of slotting

Unfortunate that genuine adult players have to lose out though. I understand that JATB is thematically childish but at the same time I quite enjoyed the Rhyming Reels games amongst others

I don't want every game to look like Bonanza either, so developers might have to pull their finger out now. What about the likes of Moon Princess or Warlords etc....one could argue almost all slots appeal to children in some way.

Strikes me as a panicky, reactionary clampdown that's only going to piss off adult slotters in the long run though. A game with cartoon graphics? Pull it!

Won't somebody think of the children etc

 

[brianmon]

They should be looking at the 'free' casinos on Facebook first. That's more likely where kids will get a taste for gambling.
They can be accessed by anyone, any age.
You get a free amount of coins to play with each day. BUT extra coins can be bought using a debit card or paypal, which a lot of kids might have these days and all you'd ever win is basically, points

 

[PaaskeDenmark]

They should be looking at the 'free' casinos on Facebook first. That's more likely where kids will get a taste for gambling.
They can be accessed by anyone, any age.
You get a free amount of coins to play with each day. BUT extra coins can be bought using a debit card or paypal, which a lot of kids might have these days and all you'd ever win is basically, points

Yeah or just take Playstation or Xbox which i play on (FIFA 18) they have a coin system (virtual currency) here you need to buy fifa points to open packs (which is a GAMBLE) and you can buy sell players. So as there is real money in play here it is basically gambling. And you have loads under 18 playing. So what will they do about that then??

 

[goatwack]

Yeah or just take Playstation or Xbox which i play on (FIFA 18) they have a coin system (virtual currency) here you need to buy fifa points to open packs (which is a GAMBLE) and you can buy sell players. So as there is real money in play here it is basically gambling. And you have loads under 18 playing. So what will they do about that then??

Yeah there's a whole new can of worms opening up in regards to kids purchasing those, and what constitutes gambling. There's a lot of talk about the current fad of games designers putting loot boxes in everything, ie allowing players to purchase a box of unknown 'goodies' to get special weapons etc via in-game purchases.

Most argue that kids 'gamble' because they are unaware of the outcome of the loot boxes. The companies and even PEGI say it doesn't constitute gambling (hmmm).

With Fifa though it's pretty blatant, I agree

 

[Jono777]

Question is, where does it all end?

It will be one thing after another until the enjoyment is totally gone

 

[lotusch]

They should be looking at the 'free' casinos on Facebook first. That's more likely where kids will get a taste for gambling.
They can be accessed by anyone, any age.
You get a free amount of coins to play with each day. BUT extra coins can be bought using a debit card or paypal, which a lot of kids might have these days and all you'd ever win is basically, points

I play Huuuge Casino on my phone and have never spent a penny and never will for any "social" game because they are greedy and vile robbers.
Without paying real cash you can still advance in games or win loads of coins like in Huge Casino.
But I hear ya...In my guild there are loads of Americans and Canadians and they spend thousands of dollars on these idiotic so called "free" to play casino games.
Their choice,just saying it is plain stupid as you can't win real money.

And I am talking about adults,look at all the games for kids for example all the shopkins games that my girls love..A nice little payment page added to it and when they click on it daddy's google play store credit card will be charged lol...But I have learned them WHAT NOT to click...

Ontopic: Would hate to see JATB go,never won huge on it but game always gives me loads of playtime and an occasional nice win in FS.

 

[09237653]

As usual the daily mail added their own sprinkle of horseshit to this news.
What the 450 letters sent were about is related the the advertising of gambling with these characters not removing the games themselves, the BBC has the non altered story

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[The Blue Anchor]

As usual the daily mail added their own sprinkle of horseshit to this news.
What the 450 letters sent were about is related the the advertising of gambling with these characters not removing the games themselves, the BBC has the non altered story

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The original story was in the Sunday Times and they have been campaigning for these games to be totally removed.

Casino's should only allow demo play to registered players IMO - not too anyone who visits their sites.

I also think developers should steer away from slot designs like Moon Princess which seems to be aimed at a younger audience.

Not sure what can be dine with the social games on Facebook etc though.

 

[brianmon]

Here's the actual letter

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Just in case anyone believes what the mail and sunday times are 'reporting'

 

[steveh35]

Why do people jump to conclusions it was obvious this was for ads and not the games.

From now on a casino cannot use Jack or Scruffy duck to promote their casino, the games will still be there.

It is clear what needs to happen, no free play without an account and maybe no playing at a casino until you have sent your ID.

If the casinos take the first step instead of waiting for the GC to get their knickers in a twist the GC might not be so tough.

 

[trancemonkey]

Childish games to be removed.

This has been mentioned in other threads but, even as someone in the industry, I think this is about time. There will be no grandfather rights so thinks like Wolf Cub, Lucky Duck, Goldilocks etc will all have to be removed. This will hurt NetEnt more than most probably but is about time.

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[interlog]

This has been mentioned in other threads but, even as someone in the industry, I think this is about time. There will be no grandfather rights so thinks like Wolf Cub, Lucky Duck, Goldilocks etc will all have to be removed. This will hurt NetEnt more than most probably but is about time.

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Isn't it the advertising that is no longer allowed?

 

[trancemonkey]

I just read the letter and it appears it's currently just the advertising BUT to be honest I imagine it won't be long until they go after the games as well. Or they make it impossible to access free play unless you have signed up therefore keeping the kiddie themes away from kids.

That said honestly there is no need for artwork aimed at kids. Yes I know adults like cartoons too but there's just no need.

 

[Casinomeister]

This has been mentioned in other threads but, even as someone in the industry, I think this is about time. There will be no grandfather rights so thinks like Wolf Cub, Lucky Duck, Goldilocks etc will all have to be removed. This will hurt NetEnt more than most probably but is about time.

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One of the reasons why the Casinomeister slot has beer and a jail involved. Not for kids

 

[curremon]

Isn't it the advertising that is no longer allowed?

"The cartoonish graphics, cute characters and even game names (such as Piggy Payout) serve as gambling advertising that's "likely" to appeal to kids, according to an official letter."

So its games too

 

[BosjeR]

I completely disagree. It's about an art style that is appealing in general, not just kids. It's about nostalgia towards adults, not to kids. There's literally zero value in appealing to kids, it's illegal, it's immoral, they don't have funds. Getting a minor to play on your site is a whole can of problems, it's the last thing you want to have happen to you as an operator. There are no kids playing because there is a Jack and the Beanstalk. Removing Jack and the likes removes a portion of a huge selection. Zero value in a lot of effort, such a waste.

If gambling is a problem in general is a different topic, and I personally think it's a sad thing to have so much action, and buy-in to solve a non-existent problem, plenty of valid problems to solve instead. But this is probably just that, a first wave of anti-gambling from those that want to limit it, by using populist and untrue stories to build a negative sentiment in general, and to see how easily the gambling industry gives in. The next step is to leverage the public backing, and to impose on larger bans and put in bigger restrictions.

Let's hope it's balanced and not a blanket ban.

 

[interlog]

"The cartoonish graphics, cute characters and even game names (such as Piggy Payout) serve as gambling advertising that's "likely" to appeal to kids, according to an official letter."

So its games too

The letter said different. It is about the advertising. The reporting doesn't reflect the content of the letter.

 

[funnymunny]

Many newspapers picking-up on the report (originally investigated by The Times & can be found

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Latest news items..

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Daily Mail:

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[dunover]

That's Sweden fucked then - Netent, Play 'n Go, Thunderkick slots read like a library at infant school.

 

[Casinomeister]

Hurrah for the nanny state!!

Have these people ever stepped into an actual casino?? While in Vegas some of the best slot games are "family/child" oriented. Willy Wonka, Spamalot, OMG Kittens, Colossal Reels Lil Red, Marvel Comics, Star Trek, Batman, et al.

It's going to be interesting to see how the software providers deal with this.

 

[BosjeR]

That's the problem that I see, newspapers are putting 'colorful and vibrant' on the same line as 'kiddy'. When you start doing that, it means that pretty much all games need to be removed (besides maybe that weird black and white 'Psycho' title).

The biggest problem I have with it is the angle of operators purposely abusing a 'loophole' to get their claws on children. It's so absurd, and it's the type of fake news that is such a hot topic these days.

 

[Yellowsamuel]

The reason slot designers love fairytale characters is a pretty obvious one
Royalties. As in you don't have to pay any, these stories are so old no one holds copyright for most of them.
You have immediate brand recognition and a "magical" element, so many fairytales involve magic lamps and golden eggs etc
so a perfect tie in for gambling, I personally do not see this as aiming the slots at children but rather using or own childhood familiarity of the characters to persuade us to give them a few spins,
devious minds those slot developers

 

[pinnit2014]

Yep - can't have all those 5 year olds maxing out their credit cards, spunking their salary in a day and not paying their direct debits and finding away to get round the whole 18 plus thing online.

Home next week to see my 7 year old Nephew - he'll probably start in a rant about how hard those harps are to get in JATB.

 

[Casinomeister]

Admin note: threads merged

I've merged Trancemonkey's thread into this one since it's about the same thing more or less.