It is not something I am going to put too much thought in to, but CCP’s decision to close down ISK related games of chance warrants acknowledgement.
Wilhelm Arcturus is a little less reserved about his opinion than usual, but his blog post includes plenty of links covering different points of view.
Gambling to me is one of those things in life that requires us to Adult. If you only spend money you can afford to lose, and consider the loss a fair price for the momentary entertainment, then it is all good. However, without effort I can immediately think of four, no five people in my friend and family group who are or have been gambling addicts. Around them are lots of people who are victims of the consequence.
That is not to say it should be banned for the majority to save the few, but that it needs to be treated with some care and caution.
I’ve had little to do with gambling in EVE – aside the undocking type. I did put some money into a SOMER Blink account at one point during one of their anniversary giveaways to see what the fuss was about, which I blogged about at the time. It was mildly amusing. I spent the money I was willing to spend without regrets and then moved on.
There are a few things I do find interesting.
On one hand I did not have any real qualms about gambling being available in EVE. On the other hand, I found it really disquieting that people running popular sites were able to drastically influence the political environment within EVE without actually having to play the game themselves.
I am sure there are shonky operators, and I am sure there were honest ones. Given past examples, I am not entirely confident in CCP’s ability to accurate distinguish between them, or manage the related public communications fairly.
There is a surprising amount of passion in the community about this change – on both sides.
While I don’t view it as anything that should sway the argument for or against the change, I do wonder at the cost to the community events that gambling sites sponsored.
Last – the specific use of the term “Third Party” makes me wonder if we will see CCP introduce in game gambling themselves. Could they get away with it?
Evehermit 
Yeah, that was an “I have five minutes to write this before work, let’s go full obnoxious!” sort of post on my part. But I did link out to everybody I could find, regardless of their stance. You’ll be there too in a bit.
Nothing wrong with some direct commentary.
Think you’re probably spot on about CCP Bet, quite the coincidence at the same the EULA changes suddenly require being 18+ to signup. If they beat the dreadful margins Eve-Bet/Blink/etc operated with I doubt there’ll be too much long term grumbling and hell, a cash cow to fund development puts a smile on my face for one 🙂
I read it that they have actually removed the 13 year age limit, and just said adults can create at their discretion an account for a minor child of theirs, or share their own account with their own child.
I wonder about that removal of the 13 year age limit though. I know we have had issues registering Apple and Microsoft accounts for our kids under 13 as they won’t allow it – apparently because arduous laws in America related to how online accounts must be managed for minors.