Xboxist

Tournament Matchmaking Service Lets You Play for Money

When you show up at your friend's house for some multiplayer, does the music suddenly stop, and do all of your buddies turn around to gawk at the awesomeness that just swaggered through the door? If so, then Gamer Saloon might be just the place for you and your badass self. Gamer Saloon is, for want of a better description, an online tournament matchmaking service that allows the participants to settle on real money stakes for their matches. The service supports pretty much any multiplayer game that could be played for money (Guitar Hero, anyone?), and every video game console including PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and PSP.

Basically how it works is you pays your money, you pick your opponent and game, and then you battle it out to the death. When you come back to the site to report the outcome, the website delivers the money to the winner, minus the small administration fee. Now, we know what you're thinking: based on the 'quality' of online matches we're used to having on Xbox Live and PSN, how to we know the opponent won't cheat, or try to declare themselves the winner when they blatantly lost? The website claims that it takes cheaters and frauds very seriously, and will brand unsportsmanlike players with the shameful "dispute" button if they are accused of cheating:

"We take every dispute extremely seriously, and investigate each one individually for up to 72 hours. During that time, we use resources we have, along with any evidence sent in by the participants of the match, to ultimately make the final decision on who actually won the game. If we are unable to determine the outcome of the game, the money will be refunded to both players, minus the service fee. All Admin decisions are final. If you want your case looked at again, you must be able to provide indisputable evidence."

We think this service is a potentially good idea, but it's probably a good idea to play only against people that you trust, until they get the dispute resolution part ironed out. Click on the banner below to check out the Gamer Saloon site.