We should all be mad about Dungeons & Dragons gambling machines
Online gambling doesn't need tabletop's help to further metastasize society.
Back in December, a digital gambling company called Games Global announced that it had partnered with toy giant Hasbro and its Wizards of the Coast subsidiary to develop a series of “iGaming content.” The press release isn’t exactly clear—and Hasbro let the license collaboration slip out the door unremarked—but they’re talking about Dungeons & Dragons-themed digital slot machines.
When Wargamer picked up the story last week, reactions ran the expected gamut. Some lambasted the move as tacky, while others opted for snarky derision—what else do you expect from the company that sells Magic: The Gathering booster packs? Loyalists opined about Wizards of the Coast once again losing its way as a brand steward; keen students of capitalism (somewhat) correctly identified the ploy as one of simple corporate greed. Back in 2022, Hasbro’s executives characterized D&D as an “undermonetized” IP in the company’s portfolio, largely as a justification for this sort of digital strip-mining.
The first in this so-called “multi-game collaboration” will be Neon Valley Studios’ Dungeons & Dragons Tales of Riches, an “immersive, high-engagement slot experience” currently slated for the first part of 2025. The slot machine (in case we get lost among the buzzwords) will likely contain a series of interconnected minigames with D&D theming that provides gamblers with a bevy of colors, sounds, and iconography but only one real choice: spend money to win or lose ad nauseam.
