Absolutely fucked up that games with legal gambling (loot boxes) can be rated E, but the second an indie dev makes a game that has cards in it and a poker scoring system, they suddenly act like rabid dogs.
I know there are no gambling mechanics in the game, but it is certainly poker themed so I feel like I’d be hard pressed to argue that it doesn’t contain gambling imagery, and it certainly instructs about how poker hands are constructed (in the sense that if you didn’t know what a flush was, you will after playing Balatro). I feel like they may have run afoul of a technicality.
My ultra religious father made me throw out a kid’s magic trick prize from a breakfast cereal box when I was a kid. He told me knew it wasn’t gambling (it had three loose playing cards), but we needed to avoid the appearance of evil.
Wouldn’t surprise me if some fundie reported the game under similar pretenses.
