Grand Theft Auto Online's Diamond Casino update released this week and players in multiple countries around the world are unable to access many of the new features due to regional gaming restrictions, essentially creating something like gambling but worse. GTA Online has had dozens of free content updates over the past six years, from high-rise crime boss missions to letting players purchase their own party yachts, but this is the first time that the game's casino, formerly a half-constructed building, has ever been open to the public.
Sporting blackjack and poker tables, horse racing, slot machines, and more, the Casino update has been eagerly awaited by GTAO fans. New arrivals are treated to a quick video tour of the games available to them and are informed that the only currency accepted inside the casino are chips, which can be purchased and exchanged at a 1:1 ratio with normal in-game currency. In addition to the gambling options available, players with larger wallets are able to unlock the update's high-roller VIP features, including an exclusive penthouse, new games, and a new series of story missions that revolve around helping out the casino's owners. Unfortunately, it depends on where a player lives as to whether they will have access to much of this content or not.
GTA Online players in South Africa, Jordan, Iceland, and others have all reported not being able to access the game's gambling-related activities. Although the gambling in GTAO is not done strictly with real money, many governments are classifying it as such, and a recent Reddit thread shows just how many players around the world are seeing the message "your account does not have permission to complete this transaction". Online gambling regulations vary drastically between regions, and even in countries where most online gaming is allowed, like Portugal, players are being blocked from indulging in the casino games.
In-game currency in GTAO can be accumulated by participating in missions and activities in the online overworld or by purchasing Shark Cards in the Rockstar store for real money. This creates a situation where a player can easily use real money on a Shark Card to receive in-game dollars which can then be transferred into chips with which to gamble with. By utilizing this multi-step system, the game allows players to effectively gamble with real money while only allowing them to win back fake money.
It's as if there was a blackjack machine inside a Chuck 'E Cheese that only took those tokens that must be bought with real money. Chuck 'E Cheese is actually a better investment, because by participating in the games there a player has the chance of receiving tickets which may then be exchanged for physical goods like cards or tiny plastic dinosaurs. GTA Online has no analogous feature, no tickets, nothing that benefits the player other than the very real potentially addictive experience of gambling. Money won in the Diamond Casino cannot be transferred back to the winner in anything other than in-game currency, and while additional purchases like new cars and outfits are great incentives to gamble with fake money, it's not anything that's worth getting a real bank account involved in.
Debates about unregulated microtransactions in games like Call of Duty, Battlefront, Overwatch, and others have only grown in number over the past few years. With recent reports of children unknowingly spending thousands of dollars of their parent's money still fresh in the public mind, it's only a matter of time before more governments begin regulating things like loot boxes. They did it for violence in 1994 with the creation of the ESRB, and they'll do it again.
Source: Reddit