Why was Balatro slapped with a PEGI-18 rating without any actual gambling? Let’s discuss

• Balatro dev LocalThunk took to Twitter to address the hit deck-builder’s 18+ rating from PEGI
• This places it in the same age range as Grand Theft Auto
• As LocalThunk pointed out, other releases with hidden fees get much lower ratings, so why is that?

I think it’s safe to say that Balatro has taken the world by storm. After enormously positive critical reception from players and journalists alike, making huge sales and sweeping awards ceremonies the world over, it seems the only thing left to do is get embroiled in a call for political change.

This is (sort of) what’s happened as Balatro developer LocalThunk has taken to BlueSky to voice his frustrations with the PEGI rating board, which classified Balatro as an 18+ release for depicting gambling. They pointed out that, although Balatro has no microtransactions or explicit depictions of gambling, other releases like FIFA which feature in-game purchases and more are given ratings as low as 3+.

For many it’s confusing, for most it’s infuriating. But I’m here to offer an explanation and a bit of background to this whole thing. So buckle up because we’re about to get into the wacky, wild world of gaming classification boards.

Try not to die from the excitement.

Now, the first question to ask is how do ratings actually work? That’s because it’s very easy to get worked up at the perceived unfairness of it all, but the last thing I want to do is jump on a bandwagon without justification. Especially considering the fact that PEGI ratings are seldom my wheelhouse when writing about mobile.

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PEGI is a European interactive entertainment industry self-regulatory body, which means that it’s not overseen by any government. It was introduced - like many self-regulatory bodies - due to pressure from the public over the perceived obscene content in gaming and to avoid having governments crack down as they have in places like Australia, and censoring new releases or stopping their sale altogether.

With that in mind, I’d say that PEGI making the occasional mistake is preferable to a game being blocked from sale altogether. That doesn’t necessarily make their decisions right, but it offers an understanding of why this is a difficult and thankless task.

However, that’s not to say things are actually improving. Previously depictions of gambling only warranted a 12 to 16 rating from PEGI. However, since 2020 this rating was boosted to the current 18+. For context, the fear classification has now been pushed down to 7.

We need to address the elephant in the room. Balatro is being unfairly judged for supposedly providing people with the skills necessary to play poker. Take a glance at the listing for Balatro on the official PEGI ratings website below and tell me what you see. Nothing described here about it actually encouraging or simulating gambling, only that these skills theoretically could be turned towards real-life poker.

Now, why is it that gambling, even simulated, is seen as so obscene? Well, for lack of a better term, I think it’s due to traditional moral sensibilities. Gambling bad, sex bad, violence bad, and spending money on football is okay. Speaking of which, here’s the aforementioned FIFA listing below.

Parents may want to know about the fact that Little Timmy (or since this is the European board, Klein Gunther? Petit Michel?) could be spending his parent’s mortgage money on opening packs in FIFA. This is purely advisory stuff, but again this isn’t exclusive to PEGI, we need only to look as far as the plodding pace that government action to curb lootboxes and other predatory in-game transactions has taken to see why this is so mealy-mouthed.

So, what’s the solution? Well, I want to say that in my opinion overhauling or (God forbid) getting rid of PEGI ratings is not the answer. This is, as I said above, an organisation that puts a firm line between video games and government censorship, and we need only look at certain real-world examples (looking at you again, Australia) to see where that takes us.

Ultimately, I don’t think PEGI is necessarily at fault here, but the old-school morals that they judge by definitely are. We live in a world where just the mere idea of gambling is obscene; not the new kind that you see sponsoring football matches and which have nice shiny apps obviously, but the old kind which lives in the nightmares of people over the age of sixty that probably involves people getting their fingers broken like in Casino.

Speaking of Casino; let’s look at films. Notice anything about the following listings on the MPAA and BBFC for the aforementioned Casino (1995)?

That's right, nothing about gambling! So in this case we have actual reasoning for a high age rating that I think all sound reasonable (although we do get a bit of that traditionalist mindset when it comes to drinking and smoking). A film about gambling and organised crime, literally called Casino, has no reference to the promotion or depiction of gambling within its rating; not that that was the point of the film anyway.

Unfortunately, games are still seen as being for kids, that’s the bottom line. Film has successfully made itself, what I would say is our de-facto cultural medium. So depicting stuff like gambling is artistic and doesn’t warrant the same protection as Little Timmy learning what a straight flush is.

I mean, criminy, we’re recommended to avoid using the word “addiction” in our articles because of the connotation towards drugs and gambling! So what hope do games have to play around with the iconography and mechanics of poker?

Ultimately, this in my mind is not a problem that should be laid at the door of PEGI or any other industry ratings board. They’re beholden to the popular mindset, and going against the grain just encourages some NIMBY with a chip on their shoulder about Pong to call for Neil Druckmann and Hideo Kojima to be burned at the stake.

As gaming becomes more and more accepted in the mainstream though, I think it’s a good sign that these conversations happen. But what can you do? Well, for one don’t sit around on the internet bemoaning it happening. As I wrote above, popular pressure and public mindset are what change attitudes, and writing to politicians or local leaders in gaming to show your support and to call for changes is more likely to have an actual effect than just screaming for the PEGI ratings board bosses’ heads.

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