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[True Valhalla]

I'm making a 'free2play' mobile app, and it will have a premium currency which can be bought for real money...in this game, I want to incorporate some kind of chance mechanics that utilize the premium currency.

For example, let's say the player can spend premium currency to open a special chest. When the chest is opened the player has a chance to get nothing or get some items.

Is this in itself a "gambling mechanic" because it's based on chance? Would that make it illegal for me to include this feature?

If it's not, how far can this logic be extended?

[Kyubey]

A similar situation has happened in RuneScape. They introduced a wheel of fortune which players could buy spin tokens for. They made it so that every time that you spin, you win a prize but some of these could be worthless in comparison to others. Many players think that it is gambling but Jagex have so far defended that it is legal.

[True Valhalla]

Hmm, well Jagex would be able to afford any of the legal certifications they might have needed to make that legal, if it was required. So it's still hard to know if that's considered gambling or not.

[Christian Knudsen]

I'm no lawyer, but if you're using an in-game currency that's bought for real money to bet on a chance to win more in-game currency, I'd consider that gambling. I wonder if you have to be able to redraw the in-game currency to real money again for it to really be gambling, though.

[True Valhalla]

That's what I was thinking as well - if they can't actually win money back, maybe that's enough for it not to be considered gambling (by law at least).

[Hima]

IANAL, but as long as you get something, it should be fine. It wouldn't be much different from buying a booster pack of a trading card game.

Another mechanic to prevent it from being gambling or making people less upset about this would be to allow people to trade these items. I've seen an online card game that did something like this

- premium currency -> buy booster
- in-game non-premium currency -> buy specific card. Selling cards also get you money in this currency.

Again, IANAL, but these are what I've seen from online card games. And they haven't been closed down or charged for using gambling mechanic, and they've been around for many years, so hopefully it'll be somewhat useful.

[st33d]

Given the new illegality in Japan of "complete gatcha", I believe you will be in the wrong if the gamble payouts are required to complete a set or to unlock something.

If the payouts do not affect currency and are not essential to play then it can be argued as a trading card mechanic and not a gambling mechanic.

Trading cards are widely available to children (or at least they were when I was younger).

The more your payouts resemble trading cards, the less it will be seen as a gambling mechanic.

[TylerYork]

That's what I was thinking as well - if they can't actually win money back, maybe that's enough for it not to be considered gambling (by law at least).

This is correct in most jurisdictions. You are not doing any gambling if players cannot win money or real world prizes back. Game companies leverage the mechanics that you've described extensively for their monetization, so you're in the clear.

The illegality of "kompu gacha", as st33d mentioned, is not going to affect you at all. That was a ban of a very specific monetization system in one country: Japan. Japan is also somewhat famous for drowning themselves in red tape. For more details on the ban, you can check out a blog post I wrote here: http://blog.betable.com/why-kompu-gacha-was-banned/

Hope this helps!

[True Valhalla]

Thank you very much for this information, I know you guys at Betable have extensive experience in this field

[Chris Koźmik]

I'm making a 'free2play' mobile app, and it will have a premium currency which can be bought for real money...in this game, I want to incorporate some kind of chance mechanics that utilize the premium currency.

For example, let's say the player can spend premium currency to open a special chest. When the chest is opened the player has a chance to get nothing or get some items.

Is this in itself a "gambling mechanic" because it's based on chance? Would that make it illegal for me to include this feature?

Which country? When you ask any legal questions you should state which country you are from, laws differ
To my knowledge this is considered illegal only in Japan and only since very recently. In other countries it's not considered gambling.

And if something like this was ever made illegal you could notice it by observing the TV news, since they would tell you about Facebook and Zynga shares fall :D So it would be hard to overlook.