The article discusses the game Balatro, which, despite its engaging nature, does not involve gambling elements but has been subjected to age restrictions on YouTube. Many creators, including Balatro University, have reported having their videos aged-restricted due to their perceived connection to online gambling content, which violates YouTube's new policies. This has led to confusion and a high volume of rejected appeals for reinstatement. Developers criticize this approach, suggesting it unfairly protects kids from harmless content while allowing more harmful gaming content to proliferate.
Balatro is certainly habit-forming, but there's nothing to be won or lost, other than time, by playing it. While the game has you using standard playing cards and poker hands as part of its base mechanics, it does not have in-app purchases, loot boxes, or any kind of online play or enticement to gambling, beyond the basics of risk and reward.
Yet many YouTube creators have had their Balatro videos set to the traffic-dropping 'Age-restricted' status, allegedly due to 'depictions or promotions of casino websites or apps,' with little recourse for appeal.
'The problem is,' Balatro University's host notes, 'Balatro doesn't have any gambling.' Balatro University reported YouTube placing age restrictions on 119 of his 606 videos, some of them having been up for more than a year.
Developer LocalThunk took to social network Bluesky with some exasperation. 'Good thing we are protecting children from knowing what a 4 of a kind is and letting them watch CS case opening videos instead,' he wrote, referencing the popularity of videos showing Counter-Strike case openings.
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