A South Australian politician fears that downloadable gambling games might fall into the hands of children.
Senator Nick Xenophon (pictured) is taking aim at Australian-based Pokie Magic, which creates mobile and PC games based on slot machines (or pokies). Xenophon, according to AdelaideNow, stated, “If they are an Australian corporation, then we can legislate to stop this.”
“Children will play these applications thinking they cannot lose when in reality you cannot win,” said the Senator, continuing, “We need an overhaul of our laws because the technological world has moved so quickly our laws are out of date and we need a national approach to this.”
Pokie Magic does state on its site that its games “should only be downloaded and played if you are aged 18 or over.” In the iTunes store, however, at least the U.S. version, Pokie Magic’s games are rated 12+ for “frequent/intense simulated gambling.” GamePron looked in the AU version of the iTunes Store and “came up empty-handed.”
A Queensland Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulations spokesperson told the paper, “As with any technology the best form of regulation for children is parental supervision,” adding, “… parents are encouraged to be vigilant with their children's access to mobile phone applications.”
Xenophon has been fighting against gambling, and specifically “pokies,” since his involvement in politics began some 13 years ago.
|Via GamePron|
Comments
Re: AU Pol Ticked Over Gambling Games
I remember when the older Pokemon games had Poke machines where you were able to gamble your PKMN coins.
:D
Funny isn't it, how somehow many politicians forget that there are ALLOT of card games and casino type of games in computer games ever since the Super Nintendo days and yet politicians make idiots of themselves getting afraid of gambling addiction when in reality gambling affects many older generation people and most of them have never grown up with computer games.
Re: AU Pol Ticked Over Gambling Games
An interesting point that, I wonder if there has been any studies to see how many problem gamblers are also regular gamers. Go into any bar in Australia that has pokies and you will find legions 60+ year old people throwing away their weekly pension into those machines.
Re: AU Pol Ticked Over Gambling Games
You know, I could go to just about any backwoods gas station on an interstate and buy a LCD-display poker game for $10. 10 friggin' bucks for unlimited, unrestricted fake-gambling.
And I'd get BORED.
Children will play these applications thinking they cannot lose when in reality you cannot win.
You're NOT playing Texas Hold-Em, moron! Your kid isn't going to gamble his dead grandmother's antique vase in a FAKE poker game.
Re: AU Pol Ticked Over Gambling Games
Re: AU Pol Ticked Over Gambling Games
He does make an interesting point though as this was an major issue with Australia's video game classification system last year beyond the need for an r18+ rating. Basically the board can only classify a game if the actual game is being sold in a store which meant download only and even a few MMO's (World of Warcraft) were able to bypass Australia's classification system because of this loophole. It wasn't until last year when this issue hit the media and politicians became aware of it that WoW actually got a rating on it despite it being available at any store that sells games since it's release.
This guy is also pretty anti-game being opposed to an R18+ rating and even tried to get a tamagotchi game banned in Australia (or at least rated R18+) because it had a slot game in it. Not surprisingly the issue was quickly dropped when he found out Australia didn't have an R18+ rating for computer games lest he appear in support of it.
Re: AU Pol Ticked Over Gambling Games
Well gee, having a ratings category for 18 and over would help now wouldn't it?
Re: AU Pol Ticked Over Gambling Games
Since they're delivered through the mobile platform delivery systems (iTunes etc) I don't think an R rating would actually help at all there.
I've never seen their games in any stores, though honestly I've never looked for them either.
Looking at their website, purchased products are available to download, and I think their 'all games on one disk' is express posted. Again not sure where the ratings would even come into it. Perhaps because it's not sold in a store it doesn't have to even be submitted to the OFLC and can avoid the possibility of rejection.