3 hours ago, Derrault said:It’s not a wager if you can’t get the wager plus in return plus additional value. Paying money for a service or good of unknown quality is not the same as making a wager whereby one stands to lose all or win tokens/cash in addition to the original bet.
Emphasis on bet. You are not engaging in betting at all by purchasing a good or service, even though there are a ridiculous number of examples where the outcome is in question (ie haircuts, any home remodeling project, investment in a business, all types of banking and loans, ordering a book before it is published, etc.)
Given the obvious application of handicapping mechanics, I can’t see a scenario where it would ever make sense to purchase another persons deck purely on the theory it was a “stronger” deck. Caveat emptor, winning at key forge is clearly more about making good decisions than it is about deck composition. Metaphorically speakin, the game is high on piloting skill and low on aircraft quality.
We will see if it will be possible to sell decks for more than the buying price, but I highly doubt that it won't be possible given the difference in powerlevel we have seen in decks. We don't know what and how handicapping mechanics will be employed and Garfield and FFG OP are sending pretty different signals, so I think time will tell. But the powerlevel (aircraft quality) of a deck like Doomwind compared to the average we have seen is staggering and the skill level difference has to be massive to make up for that disadvantage (if we don't factor in handicapping).
But even in the highly unlikely case that it won't be possible to gain value by selling the deck, we can still make a case for Keyforge being gambling. The value you get out of gambling doesn't have to be a monetary value. On this ground Belgium for example determined that FIFA18 and Overwatch use of lootboxes fall under their gambling laws, despite the inability of the player to gain any monetary value.