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Comment on Valve compares its loot boxes to Labubus in lawsuit defense
TehPers@beehaw.org 23 hours ago
Booster packs in card games like Pokemon and MTG are gambling. They contain random cards with published, known odds. The cards are worth monetary value. The consensus across the board for these games in their communities is that the packs are gambling, and it is pretty much always better to buy single cards from a third party if you need specific cards.
So are they arguing it should be “legal gambling” here? Because I’d argue the opposite - booster packs are also illegal gambling.
t3rmit3@beehaw.org 22 hours ago
TehPers@beehaw.org 22 hours ago
US law does not view TCGs as gambling, but by the colloquial definition, it is gambling. You say there’s no wager on an outcome. The wager is the price you spend on a pack, and the outcome is the resale value of the contents of the pack.
As for the case against Valve in particular, I make no claims as to what they should or shouldn’t argue in the case. I am not a lawyer. I can’t imagine most people in this instance are either.
t3rmit3@beehaw.org 21 hours ago
[deleted]TehPers@beehaw.org 21 hours ago
By this definition, buying anything is a wager.
Mostly correct. Buying anything which retains value after the purchase is a wager. This includes shares in a company, collectible items, even a shipping crate of RAM.
You’re not betting on a specific outcome in that definition, which is the “gamble” part of “gambling”.
In the case of TCGs, the bet is that the value of the cards contained in the pack exceed the money spent on the pack. This is very common. And within TCG communities, there is a common understanding that this is gambling.
That’s of course not to say that all purchases of a booster pack are with the intent to gamble. I’ve also played poker and blackjack for fun, and those games are full of wagers, bets, and outcomes. But the bar has never been that all possible reasons to do something are to gamble, just that gambling is a common motivation to do it.
TehPers@beehaw.org 20 hours ago
Edit: Hey everyone, you can disregard the above comment by TehPers, because they clarified that they actually aren’t claiming booster packs are illegal:
If you are only arguing about what is or isn’t legal, then you’re wasting your time. I’m not a lawyer, nor in a position to rule on laws. I don’t know if something gave you the impression otherwise.
;P
Thank you for clarifying to all of us that you do not comment in good faith. It makes it much easier for me to know which people to block.
t3rmit3@beehaw.org 20 hours ago
Frankly, I don’t mind. I don’t love being accused of posting in bad faith and berated just because you forgot what you originally posted. Cheers.
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 19 hours ago
Flagging @TehPers@beehaw.org on this response, as it applies to both of you. You’re reasonable, longtime, constructive members on Beehaw. Maybe someone’s having a bad day, but it saddens me to see the two of you going at each other. I don’t feel there’s a rift here, just disagreement over wording.
This said, we’re all adults. I’m just more confused than anything, and I’m sure as fuck not going to take a side. This interaction wasn’t Beeing nice.
JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 14 hours ago
One argument is that gambling requires the chance of a loss - you go to a casino, make a wager, buy a lottery ticket, bet on a horse race, you can lose your money and end up with nothing.
But buy a Labubu, a Lego minifigure blind bag, MtG booster, or a video game lootbox, and while you don’t know exactly what, you will always get something in return for your money.
Then again, “taking a gamble” is a term used for many things, like when you buy a used car without extensively checking the condition first, because you don’t know what exactly you are getting…