First off, if a moderator wants to move this to a different forum, feel free. I don't know if it's best for serious debate, or more general discussion. I've thought for ages that it would be cool to have more games where you can actually pay some small (or not so small) amount to compete, and the money goes into a pot for the winners' prizes. For example, you pay $1 to take part in a race and the top 3 take shares of the pot. Or you pay $1 in a first-to-20-frags deathmatch, and each player gets a split based on how many frags they got. On the one hand, it seems it would really make the games more exciting. On the other, preventing cheating and keeping players from being ripped off are issues. But - online poker games have been doing this for years so the principle seems popular in more traditional games. My question is, would you play games that did this? And if so, how trivial would the cost per-game have to be? I should point out that all online poker sites let you play for fun with "play money", so it would be quite sensible to include this option so only those players who want to can play for real cash.

Too many legal loopholes to jump though, so I wouldn't touch such services with a 10 foot pole.

you think we see a lot of cheating in online games now...

if i call correctly i think its already been done and failed. Might work on consoles where cheating is easier to stop but you would never get into that market.

if cheating was less useful like a top down 2d combat game, maybe.

passive cheating is impossible to stop. There is nothing stoping me from sniffing packets and building myself a radar.

Answering your stated question, no I would not play it.





Going further, it would be unlawful for me to play it.

You described an online gambling system.

Online gambling is heavily regulated across the globe. Every jurisdiction has their own gambling laws, and those laws are complex. Many countries, states, and cities ban the practice outright; others permit it with very strict regulations.

Most of the regulations pertain to money laundering; it is very easy to get "dirty" money (from thefts, drugs, murders, and other crimes) and make it pass through several players, coming out of the system as untraceable to the crime. That is why organized crime and gambling frequently co-exist.

Several factors are involved in legalized gambling. One requirement is regular formal audits. Another is verifiable probabilities of a win. Another issue is ability for players or for the house to cheat. Many jurisdictions have documentation requirements about the individual players and tracking where the money comes from and how it is dispensed. Most places have tax reporting requirements. There are thousands of other requirements, hopefully these give you a taste of what you are up against.


There are many places that do provide online gambling. Several people on the board have programmed certified gambling systems. Groups who do it have a small army of lawyers, and they have very strict testing and certification requirements. It is not impossible to build a legal online gambling system.


The game you briefly described would fail almost all legal standards. A good group of lawyers could possibly revise it to a legally acceptable system. After that you would have a very expensive (but otherwise acceptable) high risk business plan.

http://www.bringit.com

Take a look at Magic The Gathering: Online. The player downloads the Magic client, buys digital cards through the website, and plays online against skill-matched opponents. You can buy "Tournament Tickets" for $1 a piece, and you use these to enter the almost-daily tournaments. These do pay out money to the top 3 winners, and they vary in how much they pay and how many people enter. There are huge tournaments that can have thousands of participants that pay thousands of dollars to the winners, and then there are small tournaments that pay maybe $20 and only have 20 players.

As far as I know, cheating is not an issue on the service, but it may be that it is easier to prevent cheating in card-style games versus something like a FPS. The only thing the client does is render the cards for the player as they are represented on the server, get the move from the player and send it back to the server. There isn't much room for cheating in there, since all of the rules are on the server and the game moves fairly slowly compared to other online games.

Quote: Original post by AndreTheGiant
http://www.bringit.com

Have you checked out their terms?

* 18+
* Resident of the United States
* You may not reside in or access the service from 11 specific states
** (22% of the states are excluded)
* Must provide tax information
* Proof of identity is required for withdrawals
* "No purchase necessary"
* Dollar amount limitations to avoid windfall liabilities

That site (and others like it) have spent a lot of time with lawyers and government entities to comply with the law.

Yeah, I thought this idea had already been tried. And, it did fail because people abused the system and cheated.

And, it does sound like gambling.

Gambling, by defintion, relies on chance. If your game lacks random elements and is based on player skill then it's not gambling. That's just competition, with individuals earning money based on their own merit. You could also call it capitalism.

King.com is an example of a successful "skill-based gaming" site. I'm sure they're also not available in many regions, though, because not everyone understands the concept of chance. The flash market is generally where you want to look if you're into this idea. It seems to be the only market where it's working (surprisingly, with middle-aged women as the primary demographic).