Neopets games return but lessons learnt

Finally what I expect what will be the last update on the Neopets issue. The Australian McDonalds Neopets promotion has finished and many were waiting to see what would happen when the pressure from MacDonalds had eased.

Well the outcome has been what appears to be a fairly reasonable outcome although those who are anti-gambling or pro the previous presentation of the games will be disappointed.

I have not done extensive testing of this but with a couple of tests one of the highest age group and one of the lowest age group there are differences in the games that are available.

The highest age group who are probably all adult users will have full access to the range of games that include poker and slot machines, card games, casino games etc. The picture below shows some of the games that can be accessed by older users.

Note that 'Jub Jub Blackjack' and 'Krawps' are available to be played.

These games however disappear if a younger neopets user logs in as shown below.


Some lower level gambling forms are still available such as lottery, scratchcards etc. however this minor gaming is also available to children in a range of other mediums and I personally believe that Neopets are following community standards in still allowing this games for younger players (though some will not agree.)

Overall I think this is an effective conclusion to this issue and the risk to Australian children (I do not know if this applies to users from other countries.) I doesn't alter the fact that children should be supervised whilst accessing the internet but that is for someone else to argue.

This is a significant win that with public pressure, debate and eventually common sense to come to a compromise has meant a satisfactory outcome.

Congratulations to all involved including Neopets Inc., for ensuring that the potential harm that can come from early exposure to gambling is reduced.

GG