Why I Hate Social Casino Games
The last few years have brought some massive changes in the world of online gaming. For one, mobile has overtaken desktop as the main gaming medium, and has massively reduced the sales of handheld consoles. Who would want a console with a limited supply of paid games, when he can just use a smartphone with hundreds of thousands of free games to play? With the opening of a whole new market, the developers' and publishers' attitude toward moneymaking has also changed. Games are given away free of charge, and they make money from the ads shown while you play, and the money you willingly spend while inside the game.
Social casinos have seen a huge rise in the last few years. Especially in the United States, where people need to travel to play the "real thing". They rely on in-app purchases and ads, just like most other social and mobile games. And this makes them the most hypocritical game type ever to be invented.
Social casino games advertise themselves as a free alternative to land-based casinos. They have mostly the same games, but not in the same variety. And they are free to play. Or perhaps I should say "free", like this, with quotes. Because the most played social casino games - DoubleDown, SlotoMania and their likes - generate revenues of hundreds of thousands of dollars for their publishers each day. On the iPhone only. In the US only. I'll let this sink in for a while.
Compared to the real thing, these social casino games are very limited. They have just a handful of games - DoubleDown offrers its players a few dozen titles only. And many games need to be unlocked by playing and winning on other games. One of my favorite real money online casinos, the Red Flush has over 500 casino games I can play with at any time. And before you start arguing that it involves real money, let me tell you that the Red Flush offers its registered users, or occasional visitors, a way to play its games completely free of charge. It's called "practice mode", and it is available at any real money casino you might come across.
When you run out of money at a social casino, you can do one of two things: wait for the daily free coins (which you receive in 24 hours) or pay a small amount, up to a dollar to top up your virtual cash account. And, of course, see the ads - sometimes you get in-game benefits in return for watching an ad video inside the game. At the Red Flush you can simply head over to the "practice mode" cashier and add as many free credits to your account as you want.
I hate social casinos because of their hypocrisy. They advertise themselves as "free", but generate thousands of dollars a day from ads and in-game purchases. And players have no chance to win back their cash. All this in a country where real money online gaming - which gives players the chance to win real money - is banned.
