this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2025
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Balatro
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Welcome to Balatro Lemmy and Mbin Community.
This community is for the game Balatro, which is developed by LocalThunk and published by Playstack. For more Balatro conversation, please head to the stickied FAQ and check out the official Discord channel. Also make sure you read our rules before posting.
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- 1: Treat all users with respect.
- 2: Posts must be related to the Balatro
- 3: No advertising.
- 4: No piracy.
- 5: No NSFW or adult content.
- 6: Reddit reposts are allowed.
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Rules
- 1: Treat all users with respect.
- 2: Posts must be related to the Balatro
- 3: No advertising.
- 4: No piracy.
- 5: No NSFW or adult content.
- 6: Reddit reposts are allowed.
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I haven't played Balatro I'm here from all, but I thought I remember the devs coming out and saying it was explicitly NOT a gambling game. Is that not true?
It's gambling in the sense that you're playing a rogue-like version of poker and are trying to manage RNG.
It's not gambling in the sense that they need a warning to keep kids from spending Mom and Dad's credit card on loot boxes or something.
It's a roguelite. That makes every run a gamble. You take chances and sometimes they make a good build, sometimes they fall apart.
It's not gambling in the sense of casino-style betting money on chance.
If you think loot boxes are not gambling, you could probably make that argument. The game is built around buying those loot boxes between rounds and being strategic about which category of them to buy.
Balatro is not lootboxes though a
You don't pay real money for them but does a Buffoon booster not fit the criteria? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loot_(video_games)
I'd say it counts as random loot, but doesn't fit the criteria to be a loot box