YouTube Age-Restricts Balatro Videos Over “Gambling” Concerns, Sparking Backlash From Devs and Creators

YouTube has started slapping age restrictions on videos featuring Balatro, the viral poker-inspired roguelike. This decision has sparked frustration from the game’s sole developer and content creators who argue the game has been unfairly targeted.

Developed by the one-person studio LocalThunk, Balatro is a deck-building game that mixes classic poker hands with roguelike progression and point-chasing madness. It’s got chips, cards, and multipliers—but one thing it doesn’t have? Real-money gambling. Still, YouTube seems to think otherwise.

The trouble began after YouTube updated its policies on March 19, 2025, tightening the screws on content that features or promotes “online casino sites or apps.” Since then, Balatro videos have mysteriously been flagged and slapped with 18+ age restrictions. Many believe an “automated” system is flagging Balatro videos because the game involves poker hands and chip mechanics, despite these elements being purely for gameplay and scoring purposes.

LocalThunk took to social media to vent their frustration, posting:

“Apparently Balatro videos are being rated 18+ on YouTube now for gambling. Good thing we are protecting children from knowing what a 4 of a kind is and letting them watch CS case opening videos instead.”

This pointed criticism highlights what many see as inconsistent enforcement by YouTube, as content featuring loot boxes and similar mechanics in games like Counter-Strike—which involve actual money—often avoid similar restrictions.

The YouTube channel “Balatro University” was among the first to report being affected by these age restrictions. For content creators, these limitations significantly reduce their videos’ visibility and potential reach, as age-restricted content is less likely to appear in recommendations and search results.

And this isn’t Balatro’s first brush with content regulation. When it launched in February 2024, the European ratings board PEGI initially slapped it with an 18+ rating, also due to its gambling-adjacent theme. But after some back-and-forth, PEGI eventually revised the rating down to 12+, acknowledging there’s no actual gambling in the game.

Unfortunately, getting through to YouTube doesn’t seem to be that easy. Creators have reported that the appeal process is vague at best and largely ineffective. And with seemingly automated decisions, some videos get flagged while others—sometimes even from the same creator—go untouched. It’s confusing, frustrating, and hurting the game’s thriving content ecosystem.

The whole mess reignites the long-running debate around how platforms define and regulate “gambling” in games. Critics point to the irony that games with loot boxes and gacha systems—often called out by researchers (like Coffeezilla) and even lawmakers as gambling-adjacent—aren’t facing the same treatment. Meanwhile, Balatro, a single-player game with zero monetization, ends up getting punished.

For now, LocalThunk and the Balatro community are speaking up and hoping that the added attention forces YouTube to take a second look at how it’s moderating game content. Because right now, it feels like a shuffle gone wrong.