The converging worlds of games and gambling

Last month I wrote an article for World Online Gambling Report about the converging worlds of games and gambling – and what all this could mean from a legal and business perspective.  Here’s a taster: “There are growing arguments that [certain games could already be regulated under gambling law]… At that stage, the games industry may realise that it has been sleepwalking towards at least some degree of gambling regulation, following which it may wake up and want to do something about it.  At that point, expect a debate about the more fundamental question of whether games should be subject to gambling law, or whether their nature qua games means they should be treated separately.” Continue reading The converging worlds of games and gambling

Some thoughts about gacha

There’s been a lot of talk about something called ‘gacha’ or ‘complete gacha’ this month, after the Japanese government announced that they intended to regulate it – which directly affected the share price of Japanese social/mobile gaming giants like GREE and DeNA.  So, what is it and why did the Japanese government decide to regulate it? Continue reading Some thoughts about gacha