Legal Opinion to assess the need to comply with gambling regulations for your game project
Another strongly regulated area of business is gambling. That is to say: games involving a factor of randomness and the stake of money, or representation of values that can be exchanged for money (such as poker chips for example).

Most of the regulators are extremely serious and picky on details. The "gacha" model (also known as "lootboxes") in massively multiplayer online games has led major studios to fold completely from certain countries. Gacha is a Japanese word designating toy vending machines, where the client would pay a fixed amount, but receive a random item of variable value. This asymmetry between the price paid and the value received is considered as a gamble by many governmental institutions. This has led major video games such as SEGA's Phantasy Star Online 2 or Genshin Impact to either withdraw their operation from certain countries or modify their in-game offer to adapt.

A Legal Opinion could have helped. It would have described the exact mechanisms that require compliance with gambling regulations and given a roadmap to either reclassify without damaging the business model of the game or successfully receive a gambling license if that choice was expected to be more profitable.

What is true for major video game publishers is therefore true for any project offering games implying the usage of money and an element of randomness, directly or not. For example, if your game wants to pay off its best winners only, a Legal Opinion should prove that the game is fair and results aren't influenced by elements of randomness.

Legal Opinion to ensure that your innovation is aligned with regulations
A Legal Opinion can also shed light on an innovative business model. Though this is often applied to financial services and FinTechs, in general, the usage of novel technologies and new ideas can lead to confusion when it comes to classification, regulation, and ensuring compliance. It is then preferable to have a lawyer reassure governmental and institutional representatives over what is it that you are doing, and that they may not understand properly.

The sphere of financial technologies is evolving quickly, as new disrupting technologies are enriching the toolkit of entrepreneurs almost every year. Lately, the popularization of language learning models has opened the door to numerous opportunities. Companies are eager to create new services and develop new ideas, that may not be clearly explained in existing laws and regulations. However, that would be wrong to think that regulators will let novel projects fly unregulated on the basis that no dedicated legislation has been enforced for their specific activity.

A Legal Opinion can link the dots between the existing regulations surrounding your innovative business model. It will provide you with more certainty on its legality and on the potential need for approbation, in case your idea would dip into existing laws.

Additionally, in the same fashion, a Legal Opinion can state the compliance requirements such as:

AML-CFT;
KYC and due diligence;
Risk management and reporting procedures.