With the widespread regulation of online gambling, several pop culture icons and intellectual properties have partnered with casino Game developers to create real-money gambling experiences that draw fans from their respective fandoms.

These agreements have brought video slots featuring Street Fighter and Lord of the Rings, and game shows like Evolution Gaming's Monopoly Live. However, in the world of big-money brand deals, one video game developer has gone so far as to add a no-casino partnership or buy-out clause to his last will and testament.

Casino Games Become Popular in Gaming

If you are new to online gambling, what you might not know is that casino games and gambling are not synonymous. Casino games are a genre of game that features mechanics that casinos popularised – but unless you’re playing them for real money, you’re not actually gambling.

The use of casino logic was fundamental to the success of the Vampire Survivors. This title does not use any gambling in its gameplay; instead, it is a bullet hell game where you collect power-ups and eliminate monsters to ultimately face off with Dracula himself. Here, the developer had previously created Online Slots and used the same ‘big win’ triggers to keep players engaged in his video game.

However, one of the biggest success stories of a casino game-themed video game release is that of Balatro. The popular single-player poker-themed video game launched on 20 February 2024 and posted on X.com on 7 August 2024 that it had already sold more than 2 million copies worldwide.

 Balatro Will Never Be ‘Real Money’

Designed by a solo dev who goes online by the moniker LocalThunk, Balatro is a pixel-art video game loosely based on poker games like Texas Hold’em and Omaha. However, to fulfil his vision, LocalThunk added in a crazy variety of power-ups and other mechanics – so much so that he pokes fun at the fact that the game veers heavily from its inspiration, saying:

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“Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deck-builder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos.”

The potential for Balatro to easily be converted into a real-money casino game that would allow players to win money has not been lost on its community or casino software providers, who are always looking for new brand IPs to partner with.

That being said, while LocalThunk was happy to take inspiration from a number of online poker games, he has no interest in his creation ever being used as an outlet for gambling online.

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“From the outside, this might make zero sense, but I hate the thought of Balatro becoming a true gambling game so much that when I recently created my will, I stipulated that the Balatro IP may never be sold or licensed to any gambling company/casino.”

This means that Balatro is the best casino game we will never play for real money. What will be interesting is if casino software developers begin to look to these emerging video games for concepts for new gambling games.