On Friday, the YouTube channel Balatro University posted a video highlighting how some of their videos had recently been age-restricted after the company tightened its policies about gambling content. But in a post Monday night, YouTube said the restrictions shouldn’t have been applied.
“Videos featuring Balatro gameplay should not be age-restricted,” YouTube says in a post on X. We’re reviewing the age-restrictions on these videos and conducting a platform-wide review. Thanks for your patience as we fix!”
In the video, Balatro University says that 119 of 606 videos were age-restricted, and of the 30 appeals submitted, 24 were rejected. In an email to The Verge, Balatro University says that YouTube said last night it would remove the age restriction from five of the videos and that it may “remove the age-restrictions from additional videos.”
“On one hand, progress is slow,” Balatro University tells The Verge. “On the other hand, this is seemingly the fastest YouTube has responded to anything, ever, so I’m thankful for that.”
YouTube’s X post from last night is a reply to Balatro’s anonymous developer, LocalThunk, who shared the Balatro University video Monday afternoon. “Good thing we are protecting children from knowing what a 4 of a kind is and letting them watch [Counter-Strike] case opening videos instead,” LocalThunk said.
Balatro, a roguelike that borrows ideas from poker, doesn’t actually involve gambling. But the game received a PEGI 18 rating in Europe after it launched because it “contains prominent gambling imagery and material that instructs about gambling,” as quoted by publisher Playstack at the time. LocalThunk also expressed his displeasure with that rating.
However, in February, PEGI revised Balatro’s rating to PEGI 12 following an appeal and said it would “develop a more granular set of classification criteria to handle gambling themes and the simulation, teaching and glamorisation of gambling in different age categories.”
Update, April 8th: Added details from Balatro University.
