‘Balatro’ And ‘Luck Be A Landlord’ Re-Classified PEGI 12 After Originally Being Rated 18+ Over Gambling Imagery, Ratings Board Promises To Develop “More Granular” Criteria For Games With Casino Themes
After initially being given an 18+ age rating for simply featuring gambling-related imagery, both Balatro and Luck Be A Landlord have successfully been re-classified to a more appropriate and realistic level.
Despite neither game allowing the actual betting of real money, both the rougelike deck builder Balatro and the rouglelike slot machine sim Luck Be A Landlord drew the ire of PEGI due to the fact that their respective core mechanics were inspired by poker and slot machines, with the board specifically noting that the former opened the door for young players to learn “knowledge and skill [that] could be transferred to a real-life game of poker.”
At the time, one-man Balatro developer LocalThunk voiced his objection to the decision by pointing out the board’s hypocrisy, as he noted how other games like EA Sports FC that facilitated the exchange of real-world money for random content pulls were treated much less harshly.
And though LocalThunk’s critique had no immediate effect on the situation, it ultimately took only two months for PEGI to reverse their decision, announcing on February 24th that both Balatro and Luck Be A Landlord would now be rated 12+ after separate appeals by their respective publishers, Soul Out Sales & Marketing and Fangamer.
“The Complaints Board concluded that, although the game [Balatro] explains the various hands of poker, the roguelike deck-building game contained mitigating fantastical elements that warranted a PEGI 12 rating,” explained the EU organization in an official statement. “[For Luck Be A Landlord,] The Complaints Board reasoned that the same arguments as above applied: although the game features a slot machine mechanic, there were no specific transferable gambling skills and the game can therefore be rated PEGI 12.”
Further, in acknowledging arguments raised by both publishers regarding a general need to better delineate each classification’s specific criteria, PEGI noted that while at current “any teaching or glamorisation of simulated gambling automatically leads to a PEGI 18 rating”, they would be directing their Experts Group to “develop a more granular set of classification criteria to handle gambling themes and the simulation, teaching and glamorisation of gambling in different age categories, which will now include 12 but also keep 18 as an age category for games that simulate gambling typically played in casinos and betting halls.”
Sure enough, while Luck be a Landlord is not yet listed on the official PEGI website, Balatro‘s entry now lists the game as 12+, with a new disclaimer explaining to parents that “The game features themes and elements used in traditional gambling. However the game mitigates this through the use of fantastical elements diverging from traditional poker gameplay as the game progresses, without glamorising or encouraging real-life gambling or betting.”
In the wake of the announcement, LocalThunk took to his personal X account to express his gratitude, writing “After an appeal from my publisher, Balatro has been reclassified by PEGI from 18+ to 12+. This is a good step from PEGI – bringing nuance to their ratings criteria that used to be 18+ or nothing.”
“I hope this change will allow developers to create without being unfairly punished,” he added before joking that physical editions of his game bearing the 18+ PEGI rating would now be considered “limited edition” items.
On BlueSky, Luck Be A Landlord creator Dan DiIorio shared a similar feeling of hope, asserting, “I’m happy that PEGI finally made the right call here and lowered Luck Be a Landlord‘s age rating.”
“I just hope that this sets a standard and other games are treated the same way Balatro and Luck Be a Landlord were,” he further opined. “Now give games with loot boxes (actual gambling) higher age ratings!”
Notably, these two titles are not the first to receive curiously-but-understandably strict PEGI ratings over their inclusion of gambling themes and imagery.
For example, Super Mario 64 DS was released PEGI 12 due simply to its featuring of simple casino mini-games, while the 2016 re-releases of the first-generation Pokémon games, despite no fuss being made over it in previous generations was hit with the same rating in response to its ‘Game Corner’ slot machine locations.
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