PEGI to revisit automatic 18+ ratings for "simulated gambling" games after Balatro's successful appeal

Balatro has successfully appealed for its 18+ age rating to be reduced to 12 across Europe.

Back in March, publisher Playstack said its roguelike card game Balatro ran into a ratings problem resulting in it being "temporarily removed from sale on a number of digital stores in some countries on console platforms."

"This is not an issue with the stores themselves, however a reaction to an overnight change to Balatro's age rating from 3+ to 18+ by a ratings board without any advance warning, due to the mistaken belief the game 'contains prominent gambling imagery and material that instructs about gambling,'" Playstack said at the time.

Since then, however, Balatro's Pan European Games Information (PEGI) rating remained at 18+, until an appeal published earlier today revealed both Balatro and Luck Be a Landlord had successfully lobbied to have the 18+ PEGI classifications on both games lowered to PEGI 12.

As a consequence, PEGI committed to developing "a more granular set of classification criteria to handling gambling themes."

"At this moment, any teaching or glamorisation of simulated gambling automatically leads to a PEGI 18 rating," PEGI explained in a statement.

"On the basis of these appeals, the PEGI Experts Group will 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."

Last month, solo developer LocalThunk confirmed their indie blockbuster Balatro had topped 5m units sold.