The verified TeamYouTube account responded to LocalThunk on X (formerly Twitter) late Monday, stating that “Videos featuring Balatro gameplay should not be age-restricted,” and noting a platform-wide review.
In an email Tuesday, the host of the Balatro University channel said that he received an email stating that YouTube’s team “concluded that it’s appropriate to remove the age restriction” from “5 out of the 100+ videos,” he wrote. YouTube added that it “may remove the age-restrictions from additional videos,” but there was “no additional movement yet,” he wrote on Tuesday afternoon.
Gambling is everywhere, enforcement is spotty
The issue of Balatro looking, to an unfamiliar eye, like “gambling” while not featuring any real “gambling” has come up for the indie smash hit game before. Shortly after the game’s early 2024 release, Balatro became either unavailable on storefronts or rated “18+” by various game authorities, including the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI). After most ratings were revised, the game’s pseudonymous creator, LocalThunk, went so far as to stipulate in his will that Balatro can never be sold or licensed for gambling.
Modern gambling and modern gaming have a rather complicated relationship, and it’s getting trickier. App-based gambling and sportsbooks became mainstream advertisers, just as the gaming industry seemed to have worked through (if not removed) the issues with its most revenue-driven, luck-based mechanics, like loot boxes and match gambling. The expanding popularity of streamers (i.e. “YouTubers”) who focus specifically on showing off gambling and offer spurious tips on “how” to gamble at sports or online casinos, have pushed YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms to ban or restrict gambling content.
But as is often the case with an entity as large as Google, and YouTube specifically, the problem is not just the lack of nuance in seeing cards and chips and calling it gambling. It is also, as Balatro University details, the lack of recourse creators have in trying to explain any of that nuance to anyone. There is only one chance at appeal, and YouTube rather quickly rejected most of those efforts from Balatro University, citing only the videos’ “promotion” of gambling. Meanwhile, more than 400 of Balatro University’s other videos remain up on YouTube with no age restriction, despite most or all of them featuring the same game.
Videos marked as age-restricted on YouTube are all but barred from showing up in general recommendation algorithms and have their lifetime views lowered by blocking casual viewers not signed in, let alone any teenager eager to learn more about Balatro.
This post was updated at 10:12 a.m. Tuesday to note YouTube’s review of Balatro content and include YouTube comment. It was updated again Tuesday at 3:10 p.m. with an update from the Balatro University channel host.