

The Problem With Virtual Goods - davidtyleryork
http://betab.ly/qAe4Vr

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andypants
I would think that playing with real money online would have more complicated
legal issues, since you're not just a game, you're effectively an online
casino.

For instance, you wouldn't be able to market your game in the states, since
it's illegal to have transactions with online gambling services.

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chgriffin
The legal issues are solved by Betable
(<http://developers.betable.com/developers/signin>). Betable already has
gambling licenses which have been issued to them by the UK Gambling Commission
(<http://bit.ly/mSX3kN>). They act as the backend to your game and handle all
gambling related activity and compliance. Because the game just acts as a
pass-through front end, and never handles any of the gambling activity, it is
not a gambling operator, and therefore, it doesn't need a license. Instead,
Betable acts as the operator and is licensed.

Betable supports virtual currency, so if you wanted to market your game to
players in the US, you can create a virtual currency version of your game,
market it everywhere in the world, and only expose the real-money gaming
functionality to players in legal jurisdictions (e.g. those outside of the US,
Turkey and Holland).

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StavrosK
Someone works for betable, I see.

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chgriffin
Yep, that's why I know so much about the space :)

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civilian
I think the author of this article forgot that online gambling is illegal. Or
at least, it's illegal for (US) banks to process money coming from gambling
websites.

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chgriffin
I don't think they forgot that. There is a big world outside of the US that
CAN gamble and bet LEGALLY online. Using Betable
(<http://developers.betable.com/developers/signin>), game devs can reach the
massive Ex-US audience (remember, 60% of Zynga's traffic is outside of the
US), and monetize them >100X better (traditional online casinos generate about
$300/month per player on average) than they currently do using virtual goods,
virtual currency, etc.

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aristus
And by "they", you mean you, right? You are the CEO of Betable.

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ethnomusicolog
So what? if it's true and good for developpers shouldn't he be the one
drumming this stuff up?

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troymc
Gambling used to be a big business in Second Life (the virtual world), until
Linden Lab banned it outright.

[http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Policy_R...](http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Policy_Regarding_Wagering_in_Second_Life)

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chgriffin
Now, they could piggy-back on Betable's licenses and legally offer a casino in
Second Life.

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majmun
problems with virtual goods are same as problems in stock exchanges witch is
also some form of computer game.

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civilian
Ahhh! I'm scared of the stock exchanges witch!

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davidtyleryork
@civilian this comment made me laugh :)

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leon_
> This new category called Social Gambling Games (“SGG”) will disrupt both the
> gaming industry

> Betable is working on developing a platform for legally integrating real-
> money play into Social Gambling Games

Nice blogspam.

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davidtyleryork
I don't think it's "blogspam" to educate the developer community about this
opportunity. Betable is basically a hack for both the gaming and gambling
industries. It hacks the gambling industry by letting new players easily enter
the space to spark innovation, and it hacks the gaming industry by giving
small developers a monetization channel that makes MUCH more money per player.

This is huge for game developers because they can afford to build their games
faster and market more aggressively if they use real-money play vs. virtual
goods. In our article, we mention that it takes a million users at an ARPU of
$1 to make $1M in revenue. Many gambling games have an ARPU of $70-$100, so
even if you fall in between $1 and $100 and hit, for instance, $10 ARPU, you
are talking about an order of magnitude increase in your revenue per player.
The flexibility that this will award game developers is awesome, and we think
worthy of a post here.

Also, we believe that the best new games that will build on this will combine
the best aspect of social games (as we know them) and gambling mechanics.
These games will be a merger of the two: Social Gambling Games.

