Rockstar will always portray the message that all casinos advise to their customers, which is to gamble responsibly. Some customers do have fun when betting and know when they need to stop, which there is no issue with. The GTA online casino does show some aspect of a casino and online casino games but it is not a complete and true reflection of the whole experience that you can have at an online casino. For example, if you play on the slot machines, you will realise that you cannot access all of the slot games that you can at a White Hat Gaming casino site. The GTA version of gambling is kept quite basic and it is not like it comes across as a full-blown advertisement for online gambling.
When you first read the title of this article, you might have been just as shocked as we were when we first found out that GTA are allowing players to spend real money on virtual casinos, in order to win fake dollars. This seems like a very confusing way of getting customers to spend real money, when all they get in return is fake money which will not be useful in the real world?
The virtual gambling hub is a new feature that has been added to the online video game, to offer a more realistic gaming experience and also provide customers with something new to experience, keeping the online gameplay fresh. This feature makes the whole Grand Theft Auto feel more realistic.
If you have GTA and want to experience this feature, you can experience it today by simply downloading the downloadable content. Rockstar have added in land casinos that players can walk into and play some of their favourite casino games, which include roulette, blackjack, poker and more. This new feature has got a lot of players excited and many waited patiently for this feature to be added. OF course, there was some opposition to this feature and a lot of critical comments being made. Some people were confused as to why Rockstar would include such a feature in their online game, when a lot of players have to deal with a gambling issue, this is only going to encourage people to gamble in real online casinos and develop a habit.
The casinos have always been in the game, but they were just there as building to admire, players could never physically enter them. There has been an opening soon banner across the doors for many years, which got players excited. In fairness to Rockstar, they have created some extremely luxurious casinos for players to play at. It is a truly well animated areas of the game and is very aesthetically pleasing, showing us just how far we have come in the gaming industry.
Players can use their virtual money in game to purchase chips that can be spent on the casino tables. There are many ways in which you can get these funds. You can earn them whilst playing the game, by competing in races, stealing from people, and more. On the other hand, you can buy virtual money in big chunks, to then spend straight away. This has been the thinking of a lot of players who do not want to wait ages to earn virtual funds when they can simply buy $500,00 virtual dollars for a simple price of £5.99. The chips can be spent on blackjack, poker, roulette, slots and horse racing.
Once you have bought virtual dollars with real money, you cannot then transfer the funds back. You have to spend the funds on GTA. This is what differs it from real gambling, you will not be able to make a profit or redeem some real funds to put straight back into your betting account, you can only keep the funds in-game. If you look at the target audience of GTA and the age range of players who play this game, you will see that a lot of young children do in fact play GTA and will have access to this feature, which will ultimately encourage them to gamble in real life, when they are young, naïve and vulnerable at this age. One situation that may occur from this, is little kids may decide to set up a real betting account illegally.
This is not the only game that Rockstar have created, which has gambling involved in it. Red Dead Redemption is another example. This is an old western themed video game where you can wager on games such as arm wrestling, poker, blackjack and more.
You can find these online casinos in GTA, located in the Los Santos area of San Andreas, where the city is very lively and prestige. Although there are some critics who disagree with this feature, the other way in which you can look at it, is that it is a new feature that has freshened up the online and got people wanting to play this video game again, as it has been out for many years and there was a slot decrease in popularity over the years. This feature is enjoyed by a lot of players and the only way in which we could truly analyse the effect of this downloadable feature, is by surveying every single player who has played it and seeing which ones then went on to create casino accounts or in fact sports betting accounts and began wagering. However, this obviously will never happen, so there will be a continued debate. Rockstar will have known exactly what the benefits and worries about this feature were and it is very much doubtful that their intensions after creating this aspect of their online game, was to encourage people to gamble in real life.
Yes, Rockstar have wanted to make some money out of this feature themselves, by allowing players to spend real money to win virtual cash. However, this in itself is not as serious as online gambling, as you are not able to redeem any real money. The game itself is an 18+ and therefore children should not be recommended to play GTA. Adults who do play this game will have a better understanding of how it works and also the dangers of gambling.
It is really no surprise that a game with this, with type of name and also this type of genre of game as brought in such a feature. It is what the fans of the game want, and Rockstar are only going to answer the prayers of customers in order to make their game more enjoyable.
In fairness to Rockstar, they have taken into consideration that some states and countries do not allow gambling and it is illegal, therefore this downloadable content, called “The Diamond Casino & Resort”, is blocked and you will not be able to play it. However, customers have further worries that this could start to encourage more players to gamble or even possibly make gamblers that have had previous gambling addictions, play this game and online casino, making their addiction possibly return. If a player is worried about this online pack, then they can delete the download and not access the casinos.
As you can see it is a difficult decision as to whether or not these online virtual casinos are a good or bad thing. On one side of the argument, they are increasing the fun and excitement of GTA online. GTA online is years and years old, and like any online game, it needs to be updated and kept fresh so that customers will continue to enjoy playing the game. This is a massively exciting feature to add to the game and it is probably true to say that the feature has seen an increase in popularity for the game. It is completely legal what they are doing and the fact that it works in a different way to online gambling, in the sense that you can’t actually win any money from it, it should not seem as too much of an issue. Only time will tell to see the overall effect of this feature, and if it is causing so many problems, then it can always be removed. One way around it that could be suggested to GTA is that players should not be allowed to buy virtual casino currency and should be made to earn it through other tasks etc, which will make them less likely to spend real money on a virtual gaming feature.
