YouTube places age restrictions on Balatro content, linking it to gambling

YouTube's algorithm is incorrectly placing age restrictions on Balatro videos, apparently.

The issue was highlighted by a prominent YouTube channel, Balatro University, which has nearly 90,000 subscribers. Due to recent terms of service change enacted on March 19, YouTube now penalizes "depictions or promotions of online casino sites or apps" by age-restricting videos with those things in them. That makes a ton of sense, broadly speaking, but it's a little unreasonable for Balatro, which is essentially an arcade game that is vaguely tied to the rules and aesthetics of poker. There is no way to win or lose real money in Balatro.

If you don't know, age restrictions are a bit of a nightmare for YouTube creators because it makes it a lot harder for videos to show up in users' algorithmic feeds. That's a big problem for anyone who makes money off of a YouTube channel, so ideally, this would never happen to content that doesn't deserve it, as it appears to have happened here. Balatro creator LocalThunk even weighed in on Bluesky, taking a jab at YouTube for restricting videos of his game while letting kids freely watch videos of loot boxes being opened in Counter-Strike.

If you haven't checked out Balatro, we named it one of the 10 best games of 2024. It's $15 and is available on any device that plays video games. Feel free to check it out, but don't blame us if it consumes your entire life for a while.