> Who thought letting children gamble was a good idea? But here we are 30 years later and Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon cards are still a thing. Most people

> Who thought letting children gamble was a good idea? But here we are 30 years later and Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon cards are still a thing. Most people don't even recognize them as gambling. Even under the least charitable framing imaginable, there's a world of differences between trading card games and slot machines. For starters, slot machines are not random; the payouts are are specifically preprogrammed to manipulate users into the patterns of behavior that maximize playtime and minimize total volume of payouts. When you learn about how they really work, it's actually shocking that slot machines are legal at all, because of the amount of explicit deception that goes on, compared to even roulette, craps, or even blackjack. Not to mention that trading card games are multifacted; not only is it possible to participate in those games without interfacing with any of the aspects that could be construed as "gambling", but it's a known and actively encouraged set of playstyles. From the perspective of many users (including the most engaged ones), those aspects don't even exist, insofar as they don't interface with them at all.