This is one of those things that feels conspiratorial and specifically engineered, and it’s the way that the free-to-play gaming industry has primed its users- primarily young men- to be comfortable with paying small amounts of money in hope of getting something momentarily satisfying. In other words, games like Fortnite, many games on the Roblox platform, and thousands of games in app marketplaces have been conditioning users to gamble for years.
This has always been my concern with free-to-play games, which focus on extrinsic motivation and rewards to compel a player to pay just a bit more in hopes of having a bit more fun, in contrast to traditional games paid for up front.
But what is making this far more concerning is the loosening of laws and restrictions on online “sports betting” which has now become "micro-betting” that people can do live during an event, ranging from football to esports to award shows, even to bets on the performance of the stock market itself (without actually investing in it).
Online sports betting is a majority male hobby, and with over half of 18-49 year old men sports betting, more and more teen boys are absorbing a normalcy around betting. Between microtransactions in games and entire segments in NFL games and award shows focusing on bets on the event, it is becoming as normalized as watching the events themselves.
This might scare you into thinking games like Fortnite should be banned outright, but before you do that, remember that the majority of teens playing online games, AND the majority of “micro-betters” are doing so because they want to feel connected and a sense of power and control, like they’re participating in the event. If we ban these things, we aren’t addressing the actual issue, which is how to feel connected or important without betting.
I give a couple general ideas for starting these conversations, but if you have my book- Power On: Managing Screen time to Benefit the Whole Family- (available at your library or any bookstore you prefer!) you can see chapter 6 and 8 for tips regarding these games and their dangers, as well as how to potentially allow access to them while still building the critical thinking skills necessary to navigate them effectively.
