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About this episode
Innocent Game
What if I told you that your children are likely engaging in gambling every day? Not in casinos or gaming arcades, but at home, in front of a computer, and with the full approval of the state. To be clear, this isn't just a phenomenon in Poland, but in the entire digital world.Box Opening or Skin Trading – it all starts with livestreams, where lengthy gaming sessions of idols from the younger generation are recorded live. At first, the CS (Counter-Strike) matches appear innocent. The player, part of a team, engages in matches, experiencing smaller or greater victories. Over time, they acquire new skills, and the platform itself starts offering various incentives to continue playing. They find a discarded rifle, knife, or chest containing hidden items. But to keep things exciting, an element of randomness is introduced. As Forrest Gump’s mother once said, you never know what you’re going to get in a box of chocolates. And here, young fans watching the players receive a dopamine boost. They cheer, hoping the chest will contain a rare and valuable item. Sounds innocent, right?Simultaneously, and often in opposition to official rules, underage players can trade or buy the items they find. The amounts of money involved are small. Everything looks colorful and harmless. But this activity isn’t just about spending pocket money. Children are being taught the habit of gambling. It becomes addictive and encourages them to look for shortcuts instead of achieving success through effort. Why play for 100 hours when you can buy winning attributes for just $9.90?A massive business is flourishing behind all this. Of course, it exploits legal loopholes and cunningly uses the influence of young generation idols. Influencers, players, and streamers lure naive kids with promises of doing nothing and getting rich. As you might expect, this business is shady and murky. But since you can top up your account with a credit card or through well-known payment operators (who are supposedly monitored by regulators), it doesn’t seem as bad. After all, you're not handing cash to a dealer on the street or sending it secretly through a locker system.Online safety isn't just about hacks and financial fraud on banking websites, but also practices like these. Recently, we’ve witnessed a surge in such activities. Just a few days ago, there was a big scandal about online lotteries used for money laundering and VAT fraud.Maybe it's time someone addressed this issue systemically? I have the impression that nothing is being done because there’s a lack of awareness among those setting the rules and regulators. But the scale of this problem is so vast that something needs to be done.
What if I told you that your children are likely engaging in gambling every day? Not in casinos or gaming arcades, but at home, in front of a computer, and with the full approval of the state. To be clear, this isn't just a phenomenon in Poland, but in the entire digital world.Box Opening or Skin Trading – it all starts with livestreams, where lengthy gaming sessions of idols from the younger generation are recorded live. At first, the CS (Counter-Strike) matches appear innocent. The player, part of a team, engages in matches, experiencing smaller or greater victories. Over time, they acquire new skills, and the platform itself starts offering various incentives to continue playing. They find a discarded rifle, knife, or chest containing hidden items. But to keep things exciting, an element of randomness is introduced. As Forrest Gump’s mother once said, you never know what you’re going to get in a box of chocolates. And here, young fans watching the players receive a dopamine boost. They cheer, hoping the chest will contain a rare and valuable item. Sounds innocent, right?Simultaneously, and often in opposition to official rules, underage players can trade or buy the items they find. The amounts of money involved are small. Everything looks colorful and harmless. But this activity isn’t just about spending pocket money. Children are being taught the habit of gambling. It becomes addictive and encourages them to look for shortcuts instead of achieving success through effort. Why play for 100 hours when you can buy winning attributes for just $9.90?A massive business is flourishing behind all this. Of course, it exploits legal loopholes and cunningly uses the influence of young generation idols. Influencers, players, and streamers lure naive kids with promises of doing nothing and getting rich. As you might expect, this business is shady and murky. But since you can top up your account with a credit card or through well-known payment operators (who are supposedly monitored by regulators), it doesn’t seem as bad. After all, you're not handing cash to a dealer on the street or sending it secretly through a locker system.Online safety isn't just about hacks and financial fraud on banking websites, but also practices like these. Recently, we’ve witnessed a surge in such activities. Just a few days ago, there was a big scandal about online lotteries used for money laundering and VAT fraud.Maybe it's time someone addressed this issue systemically? I have the impression that nothing is being done because there’s a lack of awareness among those setting the rules and regulators. But the scale of this problem is so vast that something needs to be done.
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