Thread by @cfarivar

THREAD: This, friends, is the astonishing story of a mobile casino-style game that anyone can put unlimited amounts of money into.

But here’s the catch: it is actually impossible to win anything.

As a result, players have lost up to $500,000 apiece.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…

When I first heard about this game (back in Feb 2020, in the Before Times), just the premise of a casino that you can’t cash out of seemed crazy on its face.

How could anyone spend so much on something like this?

I made call after call and heard the same heartbreaking story.

By and large, people I spoke with were ashamed at their addiction. Some hid their behavior from their spouses.

One woman I spoke with even had her own brother change the pwd on her iTunes account so she couldn’t spend more.

But this one took the cake.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…

From the moment I downloaded Big Fish Casino or Jackpot Magic (they’re nearly identical), I was constantly hounded in-game to buy more chips.

With chips, I could bet on a slew of casino games.

Like any casino, the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. So if you bet more, you can win more. (What do you win? More in-game chips!)

Each time you come back to the game, YOU GET MORE CHIPS.

When you “level up” in-game, your potential winnings go up.

I’d heard from players how easy it is to lose chips quickly.

Once, just to see, I went from having over 109M chips in Jackpot Magic to just 650 simply by maxing out all my bets, and then losing on several spins over the course of a few minutes.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…

The game also encourages players to join teams (or form their own!), and compete in tournaments and other events.

And this is one of the critical differences between this type of game (“social mobile casino”) and an in-person casino.

Here, you’re pushed to be social.

That means your in-game peers can exert social pressure on you to keep up with your team — to earn your keep. As your team does better, you find yourself playing more and more, and betting higher and higher.

As you lose (and you will lose), you’ll consider buying chips.

"I have considered walking away for good but then I think of all my time and more importantly all my money and it's hard to walk away,” Crystal Fair, one player wrote in a court declaration.

"That's how I know I'm addicted."

documentcloud.org/documents/6782…

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…

There’s so much more to this game and this story.

I’m grateful to the previous work done by @eWords and @reveal last year:

revealnews.org/episodes/harpo…

I’m humbled by the 21 players who entrusted me with this heartbreaking story.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…

More soon.

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