One in 11,700,000. Those are the estimated odds of winning a million dollars in the popular lottery game “Powerball” for adults. A similar high-risk, high-reward system is integral to many  popular genres of video games and apps available to students. In these “gacha gaming” worlds, players pay in-game currency to enter a draw for in-game commodities — an action commonly referred to as wishing, pulling, drawing or rolling. Games like “Cookie Run: Kingdom” and “Genshin Impact,” rated 10+ and Teen (13+), respectively, use psychological tactics — including limited-time events and rarity tiers — to increase anticipation for new releases. Through the “gacha screen,” players can pull for new releases, which often consist of characters, weapons and in-game commodities ranging in rarity.

Senior Tori Van Winkle (she/they), who has been playing “Cookie Run: Kingdom” since June, said that the gacha system is a central part of the gameplay and presents players with an obstacle to overcome in the game. Facing frustrating situations can heighten a player’s anticipation for a better outcome in the future, especially after experiencing a similar and ultimately successful experience in the past, according to a 2024 study on gamers from Science Direct. Gacha games reflect this phenomenon through “pity systems,” which increase the odds of receiving rare characters or items the more a player fails to obtain them.  The pity starts at zero and builds up through pulls until the item becomes guaranteed at “hard pity.”

“Beginner’s luck is actually a very, very real thing,” Van Winkle said. “And then it slowly goes downhill, and you never see a cookie that’s higher than a rare or a common.”

In “Cookie Run: Kingdom,” the chance of pulling any specific ancient cookie — one of the highest-tiered cookies — starting at a pity of zero is less than 0.05% on the regularly available character gacha. The chances of pulling it become guaranteed after around 250 pulls or after spending 75,000 in-game crystals. In the currency shop, this amount of crystals could cost around $500 in real money depending on which packages are purchased.

“This style of gaming is becoming so addicting to certain types of people, and having the option to pay money makes it incredibly dangerous,” Van Winkle said.

Gacha games are commonly available to download without any initial cost on almost any mobile device, making them significantly more accessible than other types of chance-based games, according to a 2025 study by the National Institutes of Health. However, Van Winkle said that even though “Cookie Run: Kingdom” can be downloaded at no cost, players who don’t spend real money end up at a disadvantage. It takes significantly more time to make up the difference between free-to-play players and those who spend money to obtain the highest-level characters or get level-up material.

“We have this thing in ‘Cookie Run: Kingdom’ called an arena where you play against your fellow players, and always, always, the top 100 people are pay-to-play — they have their cookies fully maxed out,” Van Winkle said. “I’m barely able to progress to a level that I feel represents the team I have.”

In the gacha game fandom, players are constantly exposed to media featuring new characters and events. After two years of playing “Genshin Impact,” sophomore Magnolia Dillaway (she/they) said that seeing a continuous flow of new game content contributes to the fear of missing out, especially for less frequent players. This fear can encourage spending in-game currency to keep up with the surge of content, according to the NIH.

“There’s pressure to use the gambling system from certain fans too because they’ll show you these shiny new characters, and you kind of want to have that character to try them out and see all the new features,” Dillaway said. “You gain this feeling of not missing out if you play for long enough. So basically, it incentivizes either a pretty big time commitment or a pretty big money commitment.”

She said it can take months of consistent gameplay to save up enough in-game currency to have a reasonable chance at obtaining a specific character during its runtime in the gacha. Usually, she only makes monetary purchases on limited-time characters she’s spent a long time working towards. 

“It generally tends to be pretty hard to get what you would actually want. Characters don’t run very often, especially specific characters that aren’t hugely in demand,” Dillaway said. “Sometimes you’ll see advertising for one specific character you really want, and you’ll have to wait a year and then have to rely on luck to actually get them.”

Dillaway wishes that open world gacha games like “Genshin Impact” put more emphasis on the character arcs and gameplay rather than rewards. She said that it can feel awkward to step out of the immersive storyline to make a purchase. 

According to a 2023 report from the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, chance-based rewards can lead to or exacerbate psychological gambling problems, which companies leverage through the use of a gacha system. Combined with an addictive dopamine release, the accessible microtransactions within games become a dangerous temptation for players of all ages. 

Before breaking out the wallet in real life, Dillaway said its important to acknowledge the practicalities of digital wealth.

“You have to weigh its value to you now, but also to you in the future,” Dillaway said. “It’s definitely good to be smart about what you spend your money on. Realize that it is an actual purchase you’re making and not just part of the game.”

Strategies to build a healthy relationship with gacha-based games:

• Set a budget for in-game purchases
• Limit daily/weekly screentime
• Recognize and accept losses
• Take periodic breaks from gaming and reflect on its influence in life
• Cultivate a balanced lifestyle and engage in a range of activities aside from gaming
• Discuss concerns with family, friends or mental health professionals
• Be aware of the addictive design and marketing of gacha-based games