"Atari" to launch online casino and cryptocurrency

[Thaldor]

Sources:

email sent to everyone in Atari VCS mailing list

Website of Atari Casino

Atari Chain website

Atari.com

 

Atari is doing a thing, again. Company that once was huge thing for home consoles and gaming in general has died years ago but somehow people still want to try to make it a thing.

 

This is the email (at least) I got from Atari VCS mailing list:

Quote

Hey Atari VCS fans. Atari Casino is coming soon! Play online with cryptocurrency, including the upcoming Atari Token. Go to www.CasinoAtari.com for news, updates, and more!

 

So, now "Atari" (let's just but it in quotes, okay. The Atari we all know and love has died decades ago and even the Atari Games died long time ago in the hands of Hasbro. You can read the messy history behind Atari brand after '83 VG crash from Wikipedia; For example Atari Hotels don't seem to be part of todays "Atari" (that runs atari.com), Atari VCS is part of "Atari") is launching Atari Casino, online casino that uses cryptocurrencies.

 

Quote

Our dedicated Atari Casino team aims to provide our users with the best online casino experience to date. With a collection of all the best Atari games, along with the most popular classic casino games, Atari Casino represents the perfect place to lay back, have fun and win big.

Sounds great so far, like just another online gambling site just with Atari branding. But the real gem on the casino site:

Quote

NO LOCAL RESTRICTION    FASTER PAYOUT     BIGGER LIMITS

Due to the borderless nature of cryptocurrencies, anyone can gamble anywhere. That’s a huge advantage for the players. Payouts arrive to the players in a much faster fashion, because crypto transactions are much faster than bank transfers. Because cryptocurrencies are more flexible than fiat, we are able to bypass some restriction that fiat currencies have and provide you with the best possible experience.

 

That is quite controversial. I would guess quite many officials would have a lot to say about that which is why... The "Atari" is coming up with their own Atari Token -cryptocurrency, which really doesn't help things and they are even selling them currently on presale which seems quite odd.

Quote

Before buying any Atari Token, please refer to the Risks Section.

Just the most important quote from the Atari Chain website (needless to say, at least I was unable to find any "Risks Section" from the site).

 

Personally I would steer clear from any of this. When I first read the email, I didn't think much of this but while writing this post and digging around I just started to get some nasty vibes from this. Like the "Atari" is probably in a bad situation with Atari VCS taking it's time to launch and it's future not looking that bright (even with Ryzen based CPU and Vega 3 graphics it really doesn't look like something that would sell well to the masses) and I could have expected something to come from them but this is something unexpected. And it doesn't help that with a bit digging there is some (in my opinion) "shady" stuff going on (the bank "Atari" has partnered with is one to take a look for, like which company posts "images" of their "buildings" on their site and those "images" are clearly computer made). Not to mention I get bad OneCoin vibes from the Atari Chain website, the multiple presales and all the hype, just doesn't feel right. Just my opinion, I'm usually not the paranoid type of person but this all just seems not right.

[The King of the Undead]

yet another way to get into online gambling. there are already way to many ways to do this aren't there?

[givingtnt]

[porina]

Without looking it up, who owns the Atari brand these days? I think it is now only used as a name some older people recognise but it isn't anything like their former glory days.

[williamcll]

What happened to their console anyways?

[BuckGup]

2 hours ago, porina said:

Without looking it up, who owns the Atari brand these days? I think it is now only used as a name some older people recognise but it isn't anything like their former glory days.

Chinese Conglomerate 

[merco]

2 hours ago, williamcll said:

What happened to their console anyways?

The newest console? A bunch of people left the project and now it is questionable if it will ever be released.

 

https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/26/atari-pressed-the-reset-button-on-its-atari-vcs-game-console/

 

https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/02/xbox-co-creator-rob-wyatt-sues-atari-for-failing-to-pay-him-for-design-of-vcs-console/

 

^ Certainly looks very trustworthy in regard to a cryptocurrency

[Thaldor]

3 hours ago, porina said:

Without looking it up, who owns the Atari brand these days? I think it is now only used as a name some older people recognise but it isn't anything like their former glory days.

That's a good question. What I get it's still steered by the same people who steered Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA), at least the CEO Frederic Chesnais has stayed. Who owns "Atari" is whole another question, after 2003 they have sold almost everything out and in 2013 they filed bankruptcy everywhere and last IPs were sold out (latest being Alone in the Dark and Act of War bought by THQ Nordic in 2018) and somehow since 2015 they have recovered from those bankruptcies and I would guess IPs went out quite cheaply so where the rest of the money has come from is a mystery.

3 hours ago, williamcll said:

What happened to their console anyways?

It's "coming". Current stated status is that they start shipping in 2020 and in March 20 they stated that the wholeC-thing will do some delays but they have parts to produce 500 first consoles which are going to developers. But I would guess those 500 consoles if they are shipped are the only ones coming out at least in 2020 if Rob Wyatts lawsuit follows. Also apparently only place where a working console has been seen is at CES2020 and then "Atari" was more eager to show that the VCS is just Ryzen based PC by installing Windows 10 to it (still it's not a gaming PC even by far (Ryzen R1606G with Vega 3 and 4GB RAM with Onyx 400 and 8GB RAM with Onyx 800) but hey! RAM is upgradable) rather than showing off how they emulate old Atari consoles or showed-off their incoming games (last time I heard their promo video included games that were going to come to the Atari VCS without even their developers knowing that they were making the game for Atari VCS).

 

And the biggest thing that shows when Atari VCS is coming out is where you can pre-order one; their own website, Walmart and GameStop. Everybody probably knows that you can still reserve/pre-order any game with name from GameStop (yes, most likely you can go and reserve TES VI or GTA 6 from GameStop, just like the guy who reserved Duke Nukem Forever back in 2001) so why not consoles also. So, that you can pre-order it now doesn't mean it's going to come out soon.

[descendency]

Isn't this old news or did I just dream this nightmare? I thought this was on techlink or wan show a few weeks ago. 

[StDragon]

It's all fun and games until you file for bankruptcy. Isn't that right Atari? 

[Warin]

So not only does the house set the odds, but they control the cryptocurrency you use in the casino.  I can't see that being rife with opportunities for fraud AT ALL.  It seems like an all around terrible idea.  And likely illegal in most places, since it is still gambling for real money.

[Trik'Stari]

I love the concept of gambling with money the government has no control over, but I could never trust the person controlling it.

[TetraSky]

So Atari is now going to take advantage of compulsive gamblers directly instead of playing around with lootboxes and other shit like that.

I expect this shit to get blocked in many places. If the gov cannot regulate it, it ain't going to be allowed to exist. Reading the eligibility in their terms of use, I'm not seeing anything about a minimum age required to sign up. Meaning minors could make an account and start gambling away.

 

[Egg-Roll]

My methodology in the madness:

Buy tokens for the 8 cents.

Sell tokens hopefully for a profit.

 

However maybe someone can fill me in on something. How do "transactions" between users actually work? I watched a quick video on ETC20 but it didn't actually go into detail on how transactions are done. 

 

Tho... this is scary:

Quote

Your current commission is:
5 tokens for every 100 tokens your referred clients buys

Yes I registered for an account, but threw a email I use for garbage like this, and not my real name. To Atari I'm...  Fitting no?

Also I'm trying to break the site or get errors but only error I keep getting is "This feature will be available soon."

 

Also not just tokens but they are apparently doing coins too, however I can't find much on the other and if it is a token as well or not.

BTW this has been known since early 2018;

ICICB has been around (website) since 2017 Oct; (coincidence? I think not)

GameTaco: gambling mobile apps that seems to never pay out;

Native Gaming: Another gambling site; 

Only 3 seem to be decent are Lite coin and the 2 gaming studios lol...

Gambling sites make sense, but still... Assuming Native pays out Atari is using Native on how to actually run a casino, while learning from Game Taco how to scam the living daylights out of people.

 

The most entertaining this about all this are those damn bubbles on the Atari Coin site... BUBBLES!!!!! I'ma gonna get you!

Too bad you can't pop them

[Touch My Hamm]

Atari should go into the mobile gaming industry. Its unregulated in regards to its pushing gambling/loot boxes being pushed. It makes alot of money..../joke end