I've made this point before, now making it again. The way that otherwise innocuous family-friendly mobile games are pushing the gambling trigger in people's brains is quite disturbing.

I'm used to basic video game rewards: you secure points and you use those points to upgrade in whatever way you see fit. Work for reward.

But most mobile games I've played recently won't allow that. You're forced into a lucky dip process, usually through crates with variable rewards.

Similarly, you cannot buy the game outright. You can only buy greater probabilities of winning rewards, usually at a very high price.

I'm not a natural gambler. I don't enjoy it. The thought of losing money without anything to show for it makes me quite anxious. But I can feel these games pulling that gambling fruit-machine variable-reward trigger in my brain.

And these games aren't for adults. They're kid friendly. There's something really quite disturbing about this development.

To clarify: my problem here isn't just the way they're trying to make money. It's that even if you spend no money, the part of the brain thry're stimulating is fundamentally the gambling trigger.