The Colour of Money

In 1987, data acquisition and recording company Astro-Med filed a patent for the world's first ever scratch card. Some 20 years later and the little buggers remain immensely popular, available in possibly every newsagents across the globe and featuring as bonus rounds in countless video games.

As with most forms of entertainment, the cards have followed suit and entered the digital arena, with a Google search for ‘scratch card' yielding a staggering 1,570,000 as you read this. Curiously, the majority of links that come up refer to online scratch cards as ‘games', suggesting they have becoming something much bigger than simple million-to-one chances on a flimsy piece of coloured card.

Enter Neogames, the new global leader in online scratch services. The developer has cracked the age old battle of ethics between gambling companies looking to suck as much money out of players as possible and those simply trying to turn an honest buck. Neogames card site Scratch2Cash is most definitely the latter, with its gaming site approachable guise, free-to-play options and an onus on ‘bringing back the fun', as the developer's slogan suggests.

‘But what makes Scratch2Cash so special?' you may ask. Well, the games don't look absolutely pants for a starters, slotting nicely into the high-end of flash gaming and the amount you spend per play is minimal. You really have to have serious control issues to rack up any kind of debt on this site, but the potential rewards are more than generous. While the morality of gambling as a whole will always be under scrutiny, you can't fault them for trying to be as open as they can be.

Why, only now, has the company emerged from the endless ranks of other competing sites to represent the pack? Vice President of Marketing at Neogames, Adrian Bailey explains: "In 2005 our CEO understood the huge success of the off-line product and realized there was a gap in the online market. At this stage we decided to enter the online gaming arena as the first and only company to be dedicated to online Scratchcards. We believe we have been responsible for creating this market in Europe and will continue to do our best to innovate and lead the genre into the future."

Adrian's explanation makes sense when you take a look at how far online poker has come, from crudely animated (if animated at all) table top graphics with naff looking cards that flipped about on their own. But now you get the full whack, an avatar, a seat at the poker table, staring eye to eye with your opponents. In some way's it's incredible to see how far the genre has advanced in such a short time.

On the flipside, there are critics who believe the advanced graphical presentation and flair makes players less aware that they are actually spending real, hard cash faster than fan boys at a new console launch. In February 2009, the Guardian Tech Blog ran a story on the online poker arena, exposing the use of bots on many gambling sites, assuming the roles of real players in order to win the company's money back. Underhand tactics indeed.

This is where Neogames might just have cracked it. There is no opponent on Scratch2Cash other than random chance, as the healthy list of big winners so far will attest to. Again, the timing is almost impeccable, as the microtransaction trend continues to swell thanks to XBLA, WiiWare and PSN. Adrian continues: "We as a company realize that we have a mass market product and unlike casinos do not want to attract the few big punters. This is why we have an extremely low minimum deposit and game offerings for as low as 50p. Understanding this we are fully behind the micro deposit option for the future and believe it will allow easier access for gamers to enjoy the entertainment of sites like ours without the pressure of having to spend large amounts of cash."

To put things into context, In assisting with this article, a member of our editorial team (who shall remain nameless for reasons that shall become clear) signed up to Scratch2Cash and played with the complimentary £5.00 start-up balance, almost doubled their cash after a few plays of the ten-pin bowling scratch card - only to get drunk with power and blow it all on a few misplaced rounds of a slot machine simulator (the fool).

The point is that gambling remains a matter of preference. The gambling game debate is a real grey issue for some, but Adrian and co. are determined to break the age-old stereotype of the scheming casino or bingo industries: "We present a lot more fun and can express our creativity much easier as we are not limited to the types of games we can create. For these reasons we do not compete with online casinos or bingo sites and hope to continue creating our own niche for the future."