Balatro creator says he will never let it be licensed for gambling, even after death

Balatro creator LocalThunk is determined to make sure his smash hit deckbuilder never falls into the wrong hands. So much so that he's put his life on it.

On Twitter, the developer revealed he recently wrote into his will that the game can "never be sold or licensed to any gambling company/casino." In recent months, he had been approached with potential license deals which presumably to "reimplement the original mechanics as a gambling game itself."

But despite its use of poker cards, Balatro has nothing to do with gambling. In March, it was delisted in non-US regions due to concerns that it would influence young players to gamble. LocalThunk and publisher PlayStack refuted this during the ratings process.

Even so, Balatro has become one of the biggest indie successes of the year. It recently surpassed two million copies, and will get its first major update in 2025.

"Thank you all for helping us reach this absurd milestone," wrote
LocalThunk. "I’m so grateful that this weird game has been such a hit and allowed the Playstack team and I to do what we do!"

Earlier in the summer, he revealed an early prototype of Balatro, along with some thoughts on how the game signposts to players and gets them to learn the game's mechanics.