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this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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We're really far from the point now.
Remember how you found ways to circumvent those things in your youth without your parents knowing? Guess what? Kids still do that. Parental controls only work on children who lack creativity.
You aren't going to be there 100% of the time for your kids. No parent would be. It would be abusive to be present 100% of the time. You're going to trust your kids with a certain level of autonomy, and they're occasionally going to do things with that autonomy that you disapprove of; that's an important part of growing up. Maybe it's swearing, maybe it's getting into fights, maybe it's cheating on homework, or maybe it's buying lootboxes. You can't block everything.
Nobody's saying that you shouldn't try to prevent your kids from falling into these traps. By all means, you should. But you shouldn't expect to be successful 100% of the time. You're going to slip. They're going to slip. That's life.
However, the fucking CHILD CASINO still exists. Maybe you can keep your kids out of it, but there are still kids getting addicted to gambling because nobody is shutting down the child casino. The fact that it exists, at all, should be appalling to any parent; but instead, some of them are defending it because "ohh but they did some good things for Linux gaming". Get real, my guy.
You're right, we are far from the point. At what step in the loot box/gambling process is money exchanged. Then tell me how gambling works. Then tell me if they are the same.
Holy shit, Gabe's really got you by the balls, eh. We've reached the "actually lootboxes aren't gambling" arc.
Insane, the lengths some will go to defend shitty behavior from shitty billionaires.
If it's gambling, loot boxes should be items of value, redeemable for cash, correct? And Valve should be the one providing that cash, as they are the child casino, correct?
The fact that you aren't answering is an answer in and of itself. You can reduce yourself to insults, but it only harms your arguement.
It is gambling, but only as much as Pokémon and Disney's Lorcana. And that's perfectly legal. You would need to go after those practices too. But I think you'd find a hard time with that. You know why? Cause it was dismissed in 1999 in New York v Nintendo of America. Gotta change the law for what you want, friend.
Yes, that's literally how the Steam marketplace works. Where am I losing you?
Play game. Get loot box. purchase key. get skin...fuck how do I get actual money. Got it, I'll sell it on the market. DAMN, I got steam wallet funds. Okay, if I get $750 worth of items on the store. Okay, that took forever. Now I can purchase a Steam Deck and then I can sell it when it gets here. But let's try to use a different method. There's some third party sites that buy directly, cool. I'll just go through this shady as fuck trade to a random Steam not and get some money in my PayPal.
At which point in either of these processes are you getting USD cash for the items, directly from Valve?
Oh, so now we're at the "pachinko isn't gambling because you have to go across the street to get cash for your prizes" argument. Knew we'd eventually get there.
You see, in Japan, pachinko parlors are "technically" not gambling because you exchange your winnings for cheap toys, similar to exchanging tickets at the Chuck E Cheese counter. Except there's a store directly across the street from the pachinko parlor that buys those toys for, well wouldn't you know it, the exact amount of your winnings!
And since it's "not gambling" in the eyes of the law, it's not damaging, right?
https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article-abstract/49/suppl_1/i17/105541
Oof.
Yes, it's still gambling even if you have to access a grey market to obtain fiat currency. Why? Because obtaining fiat currency isn't a defining factor of gambling.
Where will you take those goalposts next?
Okay, let's get rid of all TCG too. I never argued against the dangers of gambling. I never said it wasn't, it is gambling. But that's not what this post is about. This post is specifically about a NY case against Valve. That requires knowledge of the NY Penal Code. But if you want to continue being self-righteous rather than actually debating the points, then you're welcome to continue this debate with me.
^ That was rhetorical.
Well, we could always go back to talking about what's best for the children? Those days were good, weren't they? It's still about the parents. We don't admonish parents with regard to other gotchas. Or if you do, then good for you.