My own experience with gambling doesn't extend much beyond the single time I won a few dollars at a Vegas slot machine then refused to play again so I could claim that I'd "beaten Vegas." My own very petty victory as the ultimate gambler aside, it's by and large an industry built on preying on the vulnerable, so it's no surprise that Balatro developer LocalThunk is so dead against ever seeing his poker puzzler used for evil that he's made a specific stipulation in his will. "I hate the thought of Balatro becoming a true gambling game so much that when I recently created my will I stipulated that the Balatro IP may never be sold or licensed to any gambling company/Casino," Twxngled LocalThunk recently , in response to a jokey "conspiracy theory" post by another user that Balatro was secretly a psyop to get kids into casinos.
Back in March, Balatro was temporarily taken down from digital console storefronts after European ratings board PEGI changed the age rating from 3+ to 18+ after deciding the game encouraged gambling with "prominent imagery". "I still believe that the rating is unwarranted, but there is some grey area for interpretation from PEGI and at this point it is what it is," LocalThunk said in a Reddit AMA at the time . "I think the one thing I am most disappointed by is the fact that other games with actual gambling mechanics aren't rated the same way because of their appearance/theme.
" One reply to LocalThunk's tweet about the will was from Purple Moss Collectors,.