This is almost exactly the system Japan has(had?) with Pachinko machines, where you don't get a monetary reward directly but a building next door will 'buy' the

This is almost exactly the system Japan has(had?) with Pachinko machines, where you don't get a monetary reward directly but a building next door will 'buy' the prizes that you do receive for real money, effectively skirting the gambling legislation. The irony is that when Gamefreak implemented this as a gameplay mechanic in the Pokemon games in the form of the Game Corner the games got a 12+ rating[0] from Pegi, the European equivalent to the American ESRB, as the games featured 'games of chance that are played as a traditional means of gambling'. The games in this region also renamed the machines to 'Game Machines' from 'Slot Machines' although I can't find out whether this was before or after the games originally released or whether it happened while the games were being rated. The ESRB rated the Pokemon games as E for Everybody but noted that some of the games contain 'simulated gambling'[1], although not all Pokemon games with the Game Corner got similar notices. Nintento decided to remove the Games Corner entirely from European releases because of the 12+ rating. It's absolutely astounding then that games like NBA 2K20 can feature actual factual slot machines[2] and other de facto gambling machines on top of lootboxes and neither Pegi or the ESRB mention this at all[3][4] and happily gave the game a 3+ rating. Part of me has to wonder why this is, in the Pokemon games the gambling is entirely self contained within the game and there's absolutely no real world monetary value attached to it, while NBA and other games featuring loot boxes are sitting on absolute cash cows not only for the developers who can sell keys to boxes but also for the players who have the chance of opening rare skins that can be worth hundreds of dollars. [0] https://pegi.info/search-pegi?q=pokemon%20blue https://pegi.info/search-pegi?q=pokemon%20blue - sorry, can't link directly to the game(s) [1] https://www.esrb.org/ratings/35048/Pok%C3%A9mon+Silver+Version/ https://www.esrb.org/ratings/35048/Pok%C3%A9mon+Silver+Versi... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46MQ1ZMZ-l4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46MQ1ZMZ-l4 [3] https://pegi.info/search-pegi?q=nba+2k20 https://pegi.info/search-pegi?q=nba+2k20 [4] https://www.esrb.org/ratings/36442/NBA+2K20/ https://www.esrb.org/ratings/36442/NBA+2K20/