I got a huge chuckle today, My wife plays this game called Design Home. Anyhow you get "Diamonds" to buy furniture, and you start out with some money to play. The premise is you design different rooms and compete with others to win prizes (Diamonds and virtual furniture as well) Anyhow there are levels in the game etc.. people rate your room. So far Wife spent 980 bucks on this silly game, and she is hooked. I could only imagine how many people play this, apparently there are tons of people playing it and my wife suspects lots of players have spent at least 4-5K on this game due to the levels they are at etc Damn I should have been a game developer. Once you write these apps, the checks just come in the mail. I could imagine huge profits they made so far.
Should have been there when the MMORPGs started doing this 20 years ago, before there were smartphones. Boy, those were the days. (P.S.) Do some research on a little game called "EverQuest", developed by Verant Interactive, (later picked up by Sony Online Entertainment.)) There are others, but that was the genesis of this whole shitty mess. At least back then it was confined to people who owned computers. But now? Oi vey! Smartphones everywhere! And cheep apps! Ack! People are so loose with their purse!
Need to force a wife to earn money independently so that she understands that money needs to be managed more wisely.