The latest trend to sweep across Pakistan seems to be color prediction games on different sites like Pak Games. Once considered ‘niche’, these games have now transformed into a fully-fledged digital marketplace, garnering thousands of users on a daily basis, especially from the lower and middle-income brackets. But beneath the colorful interface, color prediction games are nestled in an unconventional intersection of amusement, gambling, and exploitation.
What are Color Prediction Games?
Color prediction games are a lot more simple than one might anticipate. A digital countdown clock is provided to the players, and they are required to make a guess before the clock strikes zero. Most of the time the colors are red, green, or violet. The twist? Each guess comes at a financial risk. If the player is able to guess the color, he gets his stake returned, but if not, the player loses the stake.
At a glance, it appears to be harmless fun. Although not exactly, in reality, it mirrors the dynamics of high-stakes gambling, where the odds are heavily against the player.
The Boost of Marketplace and Pak Games
In Pakistan, Pak Games has become one of the leading platforms offering new age mobile games. Although the website markets itself as a an “online game hub”, its function resembles a peer-to-peer betting system masquerading as a gaming platform. Users are able to top-up their accounts via mobile wallets or agents, and place bets commonly ranging from as low as Rs. 20.
Pak Games has devised a 24/7 betting marketplace. With multiple game cycles every hour and flashy bonuses for referrals, it seeks to tempt players while shrouding them in glowing promises of tremendous monetary gains. A burgeoning army of influencers as well as TikTok content creators have started marketing these platforms, legitimizing what is otherwise a legally dubious venture.
The core of the massive popularity surge this platform has received recently can be attributed to a number of factors:
- The overstated potential these games provide aside from bare minimum requirements alongside widespread mobile accessibility. Unlimited amounts of money can be wagered with a single smartphone and a few hundred rupees guaranteeing the simplicity of entry.
- The lack of available employment coupled with immense economic stress further exacerbates the issue. As previously mentioned, the option to easily predict colors on the screen is available, serving a desperate and stagnating youth population.
- The absence of regulatory oversight and enforcement being weak or nonexistent allows digital betting to remain in an easily exploitable grey area.
Community marketing in the form of local WhatsApp groups actively promotes organic growth. The tight-knit user base further self-reinforces to aid the referral incentive system.This trend is being observed at an amazing pace in rural areas and urban cities including Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi. Locally, ‘agents’ serve as middlemen for people who lack the digital wallets and transform the cash economy into a digital platform.
The Hidden Costs
The concern of addiction is highly prevalent when considering the addiction of users losing everything to such apps where they can earn money. For each success story that goes viral, claiming someone was able to double their money, a greater number of unfortunate people exist. Some users describe being glued to their devices, spending over their means, chasing losses, and digging deeper financial holes.
Psychologists are concerned that these games are encouraging such behavior- actions that permanently alter ‘slot machines’ like automated games. Unlimited gambling can lead a person to make risky choices and repeat such actions causing financial liability. Unlike licensed gambling markets, there are no safeguards in place. Where is the age verification? The spending limit? What about the customer support system for problem gamblers?
Legal Grey Zones and Regulatory Silence
Pakistani Platforms like Pak Games provide lack of effective internet gaming governing policies. The absence of boundaries, where regulation can be applied means a greater chance for these platforms to blossom almost completely without consequence. Although Pak Games is not explicitly denied under the betting laws of Pakistan, off the book-game techniques such as found within it’s boundaries digital environment and deserted cyber gaming governance allows them to exist shockingly without hindrance.
What’s Next?
With the increase of Pak Games, it is only a matter of time until consumer rights protectors and law enforcement take interest in them. Until proper regulations are crafted, however, Pakistan risks seeing even more of its youth caught in a digital wagering spiral masquerading as gaming.
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