During some time spent in chat discussing this topic with other users, I have seen a certain amount of interest in a betting system here on OGS. Personally, I think this would be a fun idea that could make watching games very interesting.
Of course, there are concerns of cheaters and/or legality if this were to happen, so I tried to think of a way to avoid these problems. One possible solution is this:
A ‘token’ system where tokens are awarded somewhat regularly for being active on the site (e.g. playing games, watching games, contributing to chat, or posting on the forums), and these tokens are used as currency for the bets.
Tokens could then be traded for aesthetic site decorations. Some ideas include new stone designs, symbols or emojis for usernames and profiles, font colors, etc. These are only a couple ideas that I came up with, and I’m sure other people could come up with better ideas.
What do people think of this? It seems like it could be a light-hearted way to implement a betting system while avoiding some of the forseeable issues.