Unregistered Security Tokens vs Freeroll Poker
Yes you read that right. According to some, even if you never risk a dime of your own money playing poker, it's still "gambling". And you will get muted in their gaming community without any research on their part ... or critical thinking for that matter.
However, you can buy hundreds of dollars of card packs with monsters or heroes on them to fight other players in games to ... win money ... and of course that's not gambling to these same people.
You can upload vidoes that are less than 2 minutes long into their community (we were invited to post in) and show yourself battling it out with a randomly generated outcome with the hopes of ... winning money after risking your own money to play ... and that's just fine and it's of course ... not gambling.
Playing a game of skill where it's YOU vs ANOTHER PERSON where you can even win with an inferior collection of cards and do it repeatedly because ... it's a game of skill, well that's just "gambling" according to these same people, despite putting up none of your own money.
Yes folks, buying cards with your own money with cute, futuristic or monsterous things on them and battling undisclosed RNG code to hopefully win more money (as long as your monsters are more powerful than the other person's or AI's cards) equals not gambling. Not to mention most of these crypto games NFT's and tokens are actually "Securities" according to the Howey Test ... but that's just fine apparently (until they get big enough and the SEC shows up for their fine in the millions).
Versus
Not putting any of your own money into playing freeroll poker (a skill based game that's not illegal and doesn't sell obvious unregistered securities) against actual human opponents where you can win with 2 of the crappiest cards known to mankind and win money with no risks at all ... equals "gambling" to these same people.
The fact is, the people who have this mindset likely know nothing about the laws regarding poker (and other online gaming) or why people think poker is illegal (it's not) to play online. We even outlined this logical fallacy in a post and include a link to it at the bottom of every post.
These same types of people have likely invested into NFT's in the Hive ecosystem that according to the Howey Test are more than likely unregistered Securities, buy into tokens that are more than likely unregistered Securities and promote them (it's illegal to promote unregistered securities) in this same community.
One lead developer on Hive even stated publicly, on an immutable blockchain, that his token is more than likely an unregistered security according to the Howey Test. But guess what ... this same gaming community promotes that games posts repeatedly, despite the fact that their NFT's and token fit the definition of a security according to the Howey Test.
A lot of the Hive community supports this game which is selling a token and an NFT that fit the exact description of an unregistered security and promote it far and wide and have no issue with it whatsoever. Yet ... they hear the word "poker" and all of a sudden they have an issue.
It's nothing new though. This is the way it's been for a long time due to the governments (mainly the US gov) clamping down on "money laundering" (not poker) in the United States and then most people (who don't actually read articles, but only headlines) got it into their heads that "poker is illegal".
No, playing poker online is not illegal and never has been. Money laundering and unregistered security tokens (probably like the one's these same people promote) are illegal though.
Anyway, I just wanted to vent because it's annoying to see a community and ecosystem openly promote tokens and NFT's that can't pass the Howey Test (i.e. an unregistered security), the lead developers describe their token by the exact definition of an unregistered security and are too uninformed on the law to even realize that they've just admitted this ... on an immutable blockchain. 😖
It's crazy, but on Hive we have people blindly supporting illegal activity and promoting it (which I've read is a crime #DYOR), but a game of skill that is free to play with no risks whatsoever is a problem and considered "gambling" for these same people in this gaming community.
The amount of cognitive dissonance required to come to these conclusions is either based in complete ignorance, willful ignorance or simply the fact that they benefit from the illegal activity and not from the legal activity, therefore the legal activity is muted in their community.
Maybe read up on the Howey Test, then go talk to some of the developers (like I did) at some of these games you openly promote on Hive and in your gaming community and discover ...
"Oh sh-t, I'm promoting an unregistered SECURITY and that's illegal!" 🤦♂
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