internet gambling currency
Why do websites which &quot;store&quot; money not show the actual currency, but as tokens/credits etc.?
<p>I've seen some sites which you give money to (like pokerstars, bet365) but unlike those sites, they display the money as Tokens/Credits. One such site is woduels, their currency is WD tokens.</p>

<p>Is there a problem with showing the currency (like in US dollars)?</p>

<p>It's a well-known industrial fact that people are much less risk-averse with arbitrary tokens than they are with money. Even changing the representation of the exact some money from physical cash to a number in a bank account <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/credit-cards-make-you-spend-more/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">has this effect</a>.</p>

<p>There are likely other reasons or useful side effects to this practise, as alluded in <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/a/32694/4657">another answer to your question</a> and in <a href="https://economics.stackexchange.com/questions/481/tokens-vs-money">the answers to this Economics SE question</a>, but this is the most consistently stated reason for the use of value tokens rather than showing a currency value.</p>

<p>There are certainly no general laws forbidding a display of currency value in an account, as this is done regularly for all matter of services, from public transport to gambling websites to financial trading to education institutions.</p>

<p>The only real answer is "because those sites choose to do it that way". Why do they so choose? perhaps because it allows them to change the price of a token at any point without needing to alter the costs of their various services or offers, which remain costing X tokens for Y service. It also allows them to price tokens in various currencies without needing to follow any official rate chart. And since they need only give a user's balance in tokens, not in dollars, pounds, yen or whatever, they can more easily declare that tokens are not refundable. Or they may just think it sounds cooler.</p>
