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You most probably played the whole GTA 5 when it came out six years ago (you should feel old by now) and totally aced every single mission and after you were done, you shifted to GTA Online that was promised by Rockstar, the creators, to bring a never-ending gaming experience and keep players always busy with something. And you went to the big Diamond Casino & Resort a couple of times and always found nothing interesting to do there. Well, now you’ll be amazed to know that the long-awaited casino business is up and running for Xbox One, PC and PS4.
The latest update that went live yesterday has been promised to bring in a whole lot of fun for the online game’s fans with the casino located on the corner of Vinewood Park Drive and Mirror Park Boulevard, a new facility where you and other players can enjoy the nightlife. And just as you’d expect in a real-life setting, the casino floor features various activities including Three Card Poker, Blackjack, Roulette, and Slot Machines, with some enticing prizes at stake, including some new “high-end” vehicles. And when I say good vehicles I mean the likes of the Truffade Thrax, Obey 8F Drafter, Weeny Issi Sport, Vapid Caracara 4×4, Annis S80RR, Enus Paragon R, and the armoured Enus Paragon R.
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And with the rising trend with game developers to include card-based adventures especially in online games, it would seem almost certain that Rockstar followed the train, apart from the heavy demand from the community.
But there might be a problem with this and it’s not the casino but the timing of its arrival which seems like a direct jab at the group that has been rising up to demand an outright ban at game features that prompt players to spend their real-life money for the gameplay’s continuous run.
The past few months have been infested by heated debates surrounding the legitimacy of elements like loot-boxes that have been accused to create unfair gambling practices and exposing children to danger. And online free casinos games are no exception in these arguments, something that has already been going on in other games across the globe for quite some time.
The nub of this controversy that has lasted for months now has been whether or not luck-based gaming mechanics should involve real-life currencies and if so, whether the same regulation that real gambling gets is in order. It has been a prickly issue in the gaming industry having forced game developers to even go way low to justify themselves. This includes the time EA called the loot-boxes “surprise mechanics” at a hearing in Europe.
And even though a huge population still hasn’t bought into the idea of loot-boxes causing harm to children, reports of young players ending up to steal their parents’ money for in-game purchases have been surfacing. So, one wouldn’t be right to say there’s next to no evidence. The harm isn’t just physical but psychological, something that not many seem to even care about.
A game like GTA is M-rated meaning it is meant to be played only by adults but millions of kids have played let alone involve online mods. But on the other hand, developers are in this thing for profit and that’s why we would understand that a company like Rockstar wouldn’t give two whiskers about what happens after it has sold the units.
But one would step back and think twice about whether this culture really is gambling. After all, no matter how much actual money you slide in to get to play in the casino, you can never get to redeem the virtual currency into real money. So, it might be more of a direct purchase rather than chance-based gameplay. In the end, every player who chooses to use their credit card for the games should know what they are getting themselves into.
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