PEGI to Reevaluate 18+ Ratings for “Simulated Gambling” Games Following Balatro’s Successful Appeal

Balatro has successfully petitioned to have its 18+ age rating reduced to 12 across Europe.

In March, its developer Playstack acknowledged that the roguelike card game Balatro faced a rating challenge that led to it being “temporarily withdrawn from sale on various digital platforms in certain countries on console systems.”

“This issue is not with the platforms themselves, but rather a response to an abrupt change in Balatro’s age rating from 3+ to 18+ by a ratings board without prior notice, stemming from the incorrect assumption that the game ‘features significant gambling imagery and content that educates about gambling,'” Playstack stated at that time.

Since then, however, Balatro’s Pan European Games Information (PEGI) rating remained at 18+, until an announcement made earlier today confirmed that both Balatro and Success Be a Landlord had effectively campaigned to have their 18+ PEGI ratings reduced to PEGI 12.

As a result, PEGI committed to developing “a more detailed set of classification guidelines for addressing gambling themes.”

“Currently, any depiction or glorification of simulated gambling automatically results in a PEGI 18 rating,” PEGI elaborated in a statement.

“On the basis