As a kid growing up, you may remember Cracker Jack boxes, baseball cards, playing marbles, or even playing bingo. If those are before your time, perhaps you recall Pokémon cards, Magic: The Gathering, or loot boxes?

Chances are, you've engaged in one or more of these activities. I can't blame you; getting a cool prize or finding that holographic Charizard card provides such a rush. The dopamine that floods your brain makes you want to do it again, but did you realize you were participating in a form of gambling?

Most people associate gambling with slot machines or card games—usually activities for adults—but what’s interesting is that gambling is a much deeper problem that has plagued humanity for centuries.

Let’s start at the beginning. What exactly is “gambling”? Where did it come from? The term “gambling” is defined as “the practice or activity of betting: the practice of risking money or other stakes in a game or bet.” This can be traced back to the Paleolithic period, even before written history. Archaeologists have found evidence, such as astragali (talus bones), or what most of us know as a set of dice, that dates back to Mesopotamia, where locals used them to gamble. Dice are closely connected to divination as well, as they were used to determine what the “gods” might want, placing a chance on the side of the die. Hunters would use these dice to determine which path an animal might have taken.

So, where does this put us? Everyone loves the “risk vs. reward” element in certain situations. Research shows that it’s not just humans who enjoy it—animals do too. A Duke University study found that macaque monkeys preferred taking chances on a more risky target with varied results over an easy target with consistent results.

Growing up, we are inclined to challenge our brains by learning right from wrong, safe from dangerous, and exploring our limits. If you've ever had kids, you'll know exactly what I’m talking about. We even use the concept of risk vs. reward when teaching our kids good behaviors. Who hasn’t heard, “If you eat all your food, you can pick from the treasure chest?” While the child may not know what’s inside the mysterious box of goodies, they might take the risk of trying new foods just for the chance to open the treasure chest. Luckily, mimics aren’t real, or there could really be some risk involved!

But where do we draw the line? Obviously, we wouldn't want a casino full of children, as gambling has hazardous effects on adults as well. According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, 2.5 million adults are classified as severely addicted to gambling, while 5–8 million are considered to have a mild to moderate addiction. In 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), added “Gambling Disorder” under substance-related and addictive disorders.

As a kid, you don’t really think about gambling or the psychological effects it has. How many of you went to a local diner and played the claw game? “Just one more quarter, Mom, I almost had it!” The claw game is a prime example of how gambling enters our lives at such a young age. I mentioned Cracker Jacks in my opening. These boxes were filled with caramel-coated popcorn and contained a small prize inside. The excitement of discovering the small toy inside—whether it was a temporary tattoo or a baseball card—gave us our dopamine fix until the next box. Collecting trading cards, whether it’s baseball or Pokémon, involves buying a small sealed sleeve of cards, hoping to receive one of the rare ones. We even played bingo as kids to win the prize the teacher had for us. All of these activities subtly ingrained the gambling culture into our brains.

While most of these activities seem innocent, gambling addiction can start young. Have you ever been to Chuck E. Cheese or Dave & Buster's? The difference is that you don’t directly trade money for prizes, and the games are considered “skill vs. chance.” To earn tickets, you typically need some skill, like throwing a ball at a target or using a water gun to push a boat. You play games with tokens (or card points now), earn tickets, and then trade those tickets for items that are usually of lower value than the money spent. This is why you might see a “Nintendo Switch” costing 7,000 tickets—by the time you’ve accumulated that many tickets, you’ve probably spent more than the $300 MSRP of a Switch. I don’t know about you, but I could never get more than a few hundred tickets at a time before my parents dragged me out, kicking and screaming.

The law on gambling is tricky. At the federal level, in 1961, the “Wire Act” was passed by John F. Kennedy, prohibiting all forms of interstate wagering on sports events and contests. Specifically, it made it illegal to use wire communications to transmit bets or wagers, or to provide information assisting in placing bets or wagers, across state lines. In 2011, the Office of Legal Counsel stated, “… We conclude that interstate transmissions of wire communications that do not relate to a ‘sporting event or contest,’ fall outside of the reach of the Wire Act,” thereby defining certain types of gambling not included (e.g., lottery, sports betting).

In the 1970s, video games started to introduce themselves into households. In 1977, the Atari 2600 released “Blackjack,” a popular card game already well-known in brick-and-mortar casinos. This, along with other popular casino games like “Poker” and “Slot Machines,” started entering the video game world as well. While you couldn’t bet real money in a video game, the thrill of placing bets and wagering your “cash” or points to attempt to win a greater amount was still there. Although these games weren’t targeted at children, companies had to know that parents would be the ones buying the consoles, and they might want to play games too.

In 1993, a new form of “gambling” entered the market—a collectible card game in which players, called “Planeswalkers,” drew magic spells from other cards in their deck to cast upon the opposing player. There were a few more cards with instant abilities and protective properties as well. This game was Magic: The Gathering (MTG). While MTG started off as a simple-to-learn card game, its impact on the world of gaming was exponential. Selling over 10 million cards within the first six weeks, it was an instant success. The original rules included an “ante” bet, in which both players would take one card out of their deck at random and place it aside. The winner of the game would win both of these cards.

There were even “sealed” tournaments in which players paid an entry fee and were given six booster packs to build a deck. The winner typically received the deck of their opponent to rebuild their own. The top two players of the tournament would then go head-to-head with the best two decks in the tournament. The winner’s prize could vary from a cash pool to the deck they played or more. These tournaments were age-restricted to at least 13 years old for non-cash prizes or 18 years old for cash prizes (or with a parent’s or legal guardian’s consent). Magic took the world by storm as players bought booster packs in hopes of finding better cards for their decks. Eventually, Wizards of the Coast removed the “ante” rule from their game, as it violated the law in some regions by being a “game of chance.” They removed the rule going forward with the release of their 1995 deck “Homelands.”

In 1996, a game from Japan called Pocket Monsters was released in “Red” and “Blue” versions for the Nintendo Game Boy. In 1998, with its release in North America and Australia under the new name Pokémon Red or Pokémon Blue, Wizards of the Coast saw an opportunity and, in partnership with “Media Factory” (which would later become “The Pokémon Company”), helped publish the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

While the Pokémon Trading Card Game was known as a kinder, more kid-friendly collectible card game, it was essentially another card-collecting game. With the release of the video game in 1997, they released Pokémon: The Series, an anime based on Ash Ketchum, a boy who wanted to become a Pokémon Trainer. In the series, the world was inhabited by humans along with Pokémon, who were the “animals” of the world. The series followed Ash on his adventure to become the best Pokémon Trainer by battling different Gym Masters for their badges.

This, along with video game sales, boosted the card game’s reception, and Wizards of the Coast reported that over 400,000 booster packs were sold in less than six weeks. The card-collecting craze was now in full swing, and others followed, like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Warhammer 40,000, and many more.

In 2004, a South Korean company named Wizet released a video game called MapleStory. This was a free-to-play, 2D side-scrolling, massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Wow, that was a lot. These games were not new, but what was unique was that they incorporated a “Gachapon Ticket.” “Gachapon” was a term coined by Bandai, a game maker, referring to coin-operated machines filled with plastic containers holding prizes. There were a limited number of different items that could be dispensed, which made the prize random. This might sound familiar to those machines outside grocery or department stores because they were, in fact, the same concept. The player bought a ticket for real money, which would get them a random item to use in-game. While most items were just cosmetics, players started getting hooked on buying multiple tickets to either get a specific item or collect them all.

MapleStory introduced players to the concept of in-game purchases with the “Gashapon Ticket,” sold for 100 yen (approximately $0.90 USD at the time). Players could use these tickets at in-game "Gashapon" machines to earn random items. In many Asian countries, where income was generally lower, players couldn’t afford to buy new games as they were released. Recognizing this, in 2007, Shanghai-based Zhengtu Network launched a new free-to-play game, ZT Online, which featured “loot boxes.” These loot boxes became immensely popular, and within a year, Zhengtu Network reported earning around $15 million per month from loot box transactions. This success spurred other game developers to adopt the free-to-play model, marking the beginning of the "Lootbox" era.

In 2009, American companies like Zynga found success with free-to-play social-network games that included microtransactions. Their first major hit was Farmville.