[viridian]

Saying its among the least egregious examples just isn't true. Doppler knives can sell for over $10,000. We know the sorts of psychological outcomes that occur from putting a vanishingly unlikely $10,000 jackpot on a slot machine.

People will willingly blow their paychecks, week after week, hoping to strike that 0.00275% chance for big money. This is bad for society, just like slot machines.

[philipallstar]

I agree that the gambling side looks bad, egged on by streamers pretending to be overjoyed when they win, but is $10000 really big money? I'd have thought a lottery ticket would be far more enticing.

[viridian]

I think the psychology is a bit different though, winning the lottery is a moonshot that everybody will at least say they don't think will ever, ever happen.

Meanwhile you can watch a video on youtube of a streamer pulling a $10000+ knife, several $1000+ knives, and a litany of $100+ knives and skins all in a single stream (where they sat opening cases for 8 hours straight and spending $18000 on 2000 cases + keys).

I think generally the way I've experienced people justify it is that $10000+ would be a life changing amount of money for them in a way that the $100 they have on hand isn't, and even if they strike out they still get cool skins for a game they play, so why the hell not. And eventually they are $2300 dollars poorer, with nothing to show for it but some in game skins.