EVE General Discussion

Most of the advertising spam for gambling that comes through the TV in the UK is for online gambling via apps, not physical premises where it's obvious that a person is underage and not allowed to participate.

The only safeguard against the apps being used by underage gamblers is probably a tickbox, saying "I'm over 18, honest guv" on the signup page.

For the UK Specifically

Specifically:





So #1: By becoming officially licenced they certify that the UK Gambling Commission has gone through their website setup and verified it isn't rigged in some way.
#2: They include the check box to "keep children out" - which at least makes parents feel better


And #3: If you don't have a license from the UK Gambling Commission - You *can not legally let anybody from the UK gamble on your site*. Period.


So as I said in a previous post - if one accepts that it is in fact "gambling" - then it is 100% illegal. There is no gray area, and no room for discussion. Because the video game gambling sites certainly don't have licenses from all the countries they serve.

I agree - at least until they officially start monitoring everything everyone does on the internet to police such things (tinfoil hat anyone?)

However the people who *run* the sites are easy enough to track down - because they haven't thought it through, so they don't run their video-game gambling sites like illegal/underground gambling sites hosted in countries that won't bother them w/ filters to protect their identities/etc. They operate right out in the open where they are pitifully easy to find/catch - if anyone cared enough to do so. And they are the ones that the government would want to target - because they are the ones making profit that should legally be taxed (turns out greed is a primary motivator of government/judicial departments)

Now, governments/courts operating as they do...plus the mess of international law... Who knows if/when anybody will get around to actually *enforcing* the laws. But the CS:GO case sets a precedent - and people involved in such things might be wise to follow the case and see how it turns out, at the very least.

Gambling is a cancer that wreaks havoc on personal, social and economic life.
Exposing children to it is an atrocity.
Any state that supports it is a victim, tax exemptions for casinos are a sign the state is willing to bleed in the hope of a drink.
Every gambler is a victim. Any winners are just more bait.
Setting up a casino 'just across the border' allows monsters to launder the money they stole from the living.
I don't think any of this is over the top, it's important to keep this in mind while not stamping down hard enough to drive it underground, where it becomes invisible and invades political life.
The way Las Vegas has been mythologised and normalised, when it is nothing but a machine for cleaning criminal's money is incredible. There's versions all over the world.
Anyone who touches gambling is a self-destructive idiot or a greedy idiot or both.

There is a difference between the odds favouring the house and being rigged. Being rigged = the house can *decide* who wins or loses and when.

Odds always favour the house because otherwise there would be no reason for them to run the gambling operation in the first place... But if the game is rigged then only the people the house likes wins - and if that isn't you you are guaranteed to lose. You don't even have an infinitesimal chance of actually winning long-term (though they may string you along with some early easy wins). For some reason this bothers people - and before the government regulated it it tended to be settled with violence and murder more often than not. But of course there was no "online" gambling back then.

*none* of which is relevant to whether video-game gambling sites are truly gambling, and thus illegal.


If you want to debate the morality of gambling, you'll get no argument from me it is a fool's occupation. But really it isn't related to the OP, so you should probably start your own thread. Either way, ISD will probably lock it for debating a controversial RL issue.


If you want to *do* something about gambling in the sense of eliminating all gambling from the world entirely....well...that would be an issue to take up with your local government. Not something that can productively be acted on within a video game forum.

With CCP moving their HQ to the UK they could find themselves in the firing line since they do not forbid or do anything to counter gambling, combine that with the coming free to play Alpha state clones and the inevitable influx of younger players and it could be a recipe for disaster.

I think it might be time for CCP to actually make a decision on this.

The problem with gambling sites it that they are addictive.
Person who visit virtual ones will get to real ones eventually - this is by his own choice, but problem is that eve is not mature persons only.
I think that current minimum age requirements is 13 years - kids are much likely to get hooked, especially that it don't cost them money (alfa clones after nov)

Information's about eve based gambling sites are every where, the moment i jump in to jita i get spammed about them in local, sometimes i even get PM about how "good they are" - for me as long kids are allowed to play this game - all advertising of the gambling should be strictly prohibited, even just by EULA.

Or someone else who is ok with "spending" $50 on a few hours of entertainment on shiny lights and loud noises.

Your mindset is common among people who think the point of gambling is to make money. One look at the odds should be enough to know it's simply entertainment.

It is not, otherwise every game that allows anything that might be construed as "Gambling" with an in-game resource would qualify as a gambling site. That CS:GO skins had real-world value and could be traded for real-world money makes them, in effect, poker chips.

Just because something has value to a person is not the same thing, legally speaking, as it having monetary value. CCP's TOS specifically states that you can't legally convert in-game items to money and doing so gets you banned.

The legislation these two are being charged under states, in Section 6.5 the following:



So yes, that the object in question is freely convertible into money is important and relevant, and similar US legislation includes similar stipulations.

Incidentally...I never got into the steam market... But it was my understanding that you never actually got money out of it - you just got money in your steam wallet that you could spend on more games/skins/etc.

Was there actually a way to pull money out of the steam wallet back into RL cash?