>The real problem is that players are getting tricked into installing a "free" game but later sucked into gambling once they're invested and addicted.

The real problem is that hardly anyone wants to pay for anything upfront.

Developers much prefer to make traditional games with no tricks in them to hook free customers. But take those systems out and charge $1 upfront on the App Store and watch your number of installs fall by orders of magnitude.

The market spoke, and freemium games is what they got.