THE KIDS…
The kids are alright
In a world of virtual currencies and in-game purchases, how can we be sure everyone gambling is old enough to know better? Matt Broughton ponders…
T
here was a time in my life when rather than simply being the ‘keen recreational gamer’ I am today, I would have classed myself as a ‘hardcore gamer’. Pretty much every night in my late teens/early twenties you would
have found me round a friend’s house (packed with other nerdy gamer friends) racing against them on futuristic tracks, scoring goals against them on computer-generated pitches, and/or punching them in the virtual face (with the occasional real smack depending upon the outcome of the game). As you might imagine, the question of who was
best was a constant topic of conversation. If ‘Ginge’ was allowed to always play as Chun Li, he was definitely the best Street Fighter. If I could always be Benfica, I was unbeatable at Sensible Soccer. And don’t even get me started on Mario Kart! Sometimes a ‘serious’ gauntlet was thrown down.
Mostly it would be a casual “put your money where your mouth is” challenge, but it’s amazing what 50p can do to a friendly Thursday evening in Hornchurch. Of course, that was before the internet came along,
allowing us to play against strangers in every corner of the globe. And with that amazing connection came the issue of never knowing for sure who was down the other end of the pipe. The number of times I’d have sworn I was playing against a professional soldier on Call of Duty only to hear the voice of a 10-year-old Scottish lad call me a loser as he victoriously stabbed me in the foot for the 100th time. Which ramblings bring me to the point of this piece: if you don’t know how old your opponents are, how can you know if playing against them for money is legit and legal? Though it must be tempting to be the company that facilitates such battles, how can you ultimately avoid helping minors to gamble. Even if the currency being used is a ‘virtual’ currency within a game, surely that currency still has a real-
48 JUNE 2017
world value? Which brought me with some interest to an article from Niall
McCann (right), Head of Licensing and Gaming at Joelson, a well- established London law firm, warning other social gaming operators to take greater precautions following the prosecution of Futgalaxy after action was taken by the Gambling Commission.
FutGalaxy On Monday 6 February 2017, following a
prosecution brought by the Gambling Commission, Dylan Rigby, 34, of Colchester, Essex, and Craig Douglas, 33, of Ilford, Essex, entered guilty pleas to offences under the Gambling Act 2005. Rigby was ordered to pay £174,000 in fines and costs, whilst Douglas was ordered to pay £91,000. They admitted to being Directors of Game Gold
Tradings Limited, a company which operated and advertised
FutGalaxy.com – an unlicensed gambling website.
FutGalaxy.com, which has no official association with the FIFA series of games or EA Sports, allowed customers to buy virtual currency called FUT coins. Customers could then use those FUT coins to gamble. They could convert these into FIFA coins, which could in turn be sold for real money on an unauthorised secondary market in which Rigby also had an interest.
The District Judge, DJ McGarva described the offending as “very grave”. He concluded that children had been gambling on the site but that it was impossible to know how many had done so and what
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