Are baseball, Pokemon and other types of trading cards a way for kids to enjoy good wholesome fun, or are they a form of illegal gambling supporting a multi-billion-dollar industry?
Before you dismiss this question with a hearty laugh or a shrug of your shoulders, take a close look, for example, at the fine print on a pack of trading cards the next time your child brings one home.
Typically, the packages list the odds of getting special cards. What is that all about?
I looked at an unopened pack of Topps 2016 baseball cards from my own collection. Here's the first thing I saw in the small type before opening the wrapper, something I had never noticed: The odds are 1 in 270 for finding a “vintage stock card” in that pack; one in 8 chances for a Wrigley Field card; 1 in 3,741 for a “bunt player card.” and one in four for a “greatest streaks card.” There were a half-dozen other examples listed.
Are kids gambling away their money in the hope of snagging a valuable card? Or is this just a smart marketing move by Topps and other card companies?
That debate has been going on for years and has been the foundation of numerous lawsuits filed against Topps and other card companies. Time and again, the companies have denied promoting any illegal activity.
Broadly speaking, gambling involves something of value being wagered on an event with an uncertain outcome, with the potential to earn something of value.
Now the gambling debate has heated up in the video game industry over what gamers call “loot boxes.”
Players pay real money to win digital goods such as new characters, weapons, costumes and other goodies that enhance the game. Loot boxes are featured in games such as Star Wars Battlefront II.
Anti-gambling advocates and some child psychologists have argued that children can exhibit gambling-like behavior in buying loot boxes. When you spend money on a loot box, you’re wagering something of value. Opening the loot box is the event with an uncertain outcome that could have value.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission and the Entertainment Software Rating Board have been looking into the practice, and several states have proposed legislation that would prohibit the sale of loot boxes to children under the age of 21.
Whether it’s trading cards or loot boxes, I can see where an argument can be made that card companies are encouraging gambling-like behavior through their product packaging and distribution.
But as someone who bought baseball cards by the hundreds as a kid, I was interested solely in collecting them, swapping them, flipping them and even putting them in my bike spokes. Might I have been gambling by shelling out a few nickels in the hope of finding a valuable Mickey Mantle or Sandy Koufax card? I’m not convinced of that.
I asked a friend of mine who runs a card brokering business what he thought of the gambling argument.
“There is a part of collecting that is pure collecting ... someone who collects to finish a set,” he said. “I would not put this form of collecting trading cards in the gambling category.”
But there are collectors who spend a ton of money buying unopened packs of cards hoping to get a big find.
The message for parents: Monitor your kids’ behavior if they are into collecting and explain the meaning of the fine print on the packages. If your kids are gamers, set limits on spending for digital goods, especially if it involves tapping your credit card.
