I’ve doing some preliminary research for my latest commercial projects, a project to make a gambling “game”.
Which uses real money.
In short, an e-gambling stuffs.
It’s a commissioned job.
I checked Unreal Engine (which is close rival to Unity in my point of view) and it seems that they don’t allows gambling, at all.
Unity and UE are the only engines that I think of right now. Although I’ve made my mind in using Unity since the first day, I still need to show some comparison of other engines, and state why I go with Unity to the client rather than giving blind suggestion to them and of course you know most investors doesn’t want to see a “no options” path. They need to be convinced that they are making the right choice because it’s their money that they are throwing in.
Anyone have been working on this side of the industry before?
I will feel very grateful to you if you could share some insights.
I don’t quite understand these limitations myself?
I suppose I can see Unity not wanting its name associated with adult or gambling industries but then simply have a license term that says “You must use Unity pro and remove our splash screen and use your own splash screen”.
It’s not just Unity’s “name” - if that was the case then Unity, too, would just not allow gambling (instead they have a website dedicated to it).
Most jurisdictions have a lot of restrictions around gambling, and any legal issues surrounding a Unity-published game can easily find their way back to Unity’s doorstep. I have a sneaking suspicion that the gambling license is Unity’s way of saying, “You’re paying for the retainer on our lawyer who is an expert on gambling laws.” Since casinos are usually obscenely profitable, they’re probably also making a safe bet that a studio making gambling games can afford a more expensive license.
Yeah, when you get the gambling license you’re paying for various bits of extra engineering and certification that Unity have done to make the engine compliant with gambling regulations in a number of jurisdictions.
Unity 3x can be used for gambling without talking to unity about licensing, there was no restriction, but when they released Unity 4x they revised the user license and now charge custom licensing fees for gambling games, kiosks, etc.
I understand about gambling (and I remember a long thread a couple years ago) since there are different laws and regulations, but what about adult content? Did you read about those limitations somewhere?
Hmm…
I thought Unity Gambling page is just a rewrite of the normal license.
Still it’s confusing, perhaps I’ll send an email like they instructed. (Another close deal behind the scene license I guess).
Update: I send an email to the “Vice President of Unity Gambling License” and let’s see what’s the reply.
Update: Unreal Engine 4 support technician already reply me and verified that I cannot use their system for gambling stuffs. Not a chance at all.
I suspect it’s more that it’s simply not their problem if you’re found not to be compliant based on not having done your research. If you’re using Unity 3 and are audited you might be in serious trouble. When asked about this Unity did say that they had worked with clients - and charged them accordingly - to address gambling-specific issues prior to the license update. The main thing that has changed in my view is that the license now reflects that experience.
As far as I know you need to be licensed to develop gambling games (using real money), this is usually a really expensive process, the how and the where from is dependant on where you live.
Yeah. And they should forbid Unity games to contain depictions of violence, because violence is horrible. Other things that should not be allowed into Unity games: Spiders (gross), alcohol (evil), cars (bad for the environment), sunflowers (look ugly).
No, seriously: It’s not UTs job to enforce some subjective system of morality via EULA. If they didn’t have a gambling licence because it requires too much work, that would be fine with me, but even as somebody who has no interest in creating gambling stuff in Unity, I’m glad such a possibility exists because that’s also a form of artistic freedom.
I do not wish to hurt anybody as human. But honestly tell me about, how will you feel when:
you lose a shear amount of money on gambling and it causes a havoc on your life? someone became foe from friend, due to this evil.
Remember you and I, both can fall on the trap of it. Winning or losing something on uncertainty is a kind of entertainment. But should we bait our “real” money on it?
It is good, as long as it does not harm anyone. Its like I am the president and I gave away the right of every citizen to kill themselves. Think about it.
Same thing goes for alcohol. Tobacco. Cars. Sunflo… well, probably not sunflowers. There are lots of people who ruin their life by drinking, die by lung cancer or wrap themselves around a tree a couple of months after they got their driver’s license. There are even people who lose their money, their friends and their job thanks to video game addiction. It happens, it’s horrible and it’s not something from which everybody should just look away.
But I tend to lean more towards regulation in these questions, not towards bans. And that’s not UT’s job, that’s the legislation’s job. And neither is it a game dev’s job, by the way. Sure, twelve-year olds shouldn’t have free access to beer. And neither should they have free access to gambling. Gambling must never be fraudulent, that is games need to work the way they are advertised. Limiting how much one person can bet on a machine per day or per game would be fine with me. And so on. But outright banning gambling, that’s just too deep a cut into my personal freedom. I like my personal freedom, thank you very much.
Also, addictions are mental health problem. There are professionals who can help you overcome them. Although I have heard the health system in the US is atrocious and am quite glad I don’t live there personally, gambling taxes would be a really great source for money needed for improvements in the mental health area.
It is a complicated question, I agree, but I disagree about your solution, @kaiyum , and I don’t think @princeWIGUAN should feel bad for developping gambling software.