TERMS OF SERVICE

Welcome to the arcade, hero. Before you drop your first coin, here are the house rules. Gems Arcadia (gemsarcadia.com) is an online arcade where you play games made by independent developers using coins from your wallet.

Gems Arcadia ("we", "us") runs the arcade and is the seller of the coin packs you buy here.

These Terms of Service are an agreement between you and us. They apply whenever you visit the site, create an account, buy coins or play. By creating an account or buying coins you agree to them. Our Privacy Policy (/privacy) and our Refund and Cancellation Policy (/refunds) form part of these terms. Game developers are also bound by the Developer Agreement (/developer-agreement).

BUSINESS DETAILS (ECTA SECTION 43)

The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act requires us to give you these details. Our full business details, including any not listed here, are on our Contact page (/contact).

• Trading name: Gems Arcadia
• Website: https://gemsarcadia.com
• Country of establishment: South Africa

TERMS THAT NEED YOUR ATTENTION

Some clauses limit your rights or our responsibility, or put risks on you. Please read them carefully: coins and prizes have no cash value (sections 3 and 5), the limits on our liability (section 11), what happens to your coins if your account is closed (section 10), and payment disputes (section 12).

KEEPING A COPY

You can save or print this page at any time using your browser. The date these terms were last updated is shown at the top.

• You must be at least 13 years old to create an account.
• If you are under 18, a parent or legal guardian must agree to these terms on your behalf and must give consent before you buy coins. The parent or guardian is responsible for purchases made on the account.
• You sign in with your email address through our login provider, Auth4. You need a working email address that you control. We use it to identify your account and to send you service emails.
• Each person may have one account. Accounts are personal: don't share your login or let someone else use your account.
• Keep your email account and login secure. You are responsible for activity on your account unless it happened because of our failure or someone else's unauthorised use that you couldn't reasonably have prevented. Tell us straight away if you think someone else has accessed your account.
• Your account gives you a coin wallet, a Prize Ticket wallet and a player profile. You can browse the arcade without an account, but you need one to play, buy coins, spin the wheel or post reviews.

There are no subscriptions and no minimum term. The agreement runs while you have an account, and you can stop using the arcade at any time (see section 10).

WHAT COINS ARE

Coins are arcade play credit. You insert coins to start a credit (a play) on a game. Each game shows how many coins one credit costs (between 1 and 5) before you insert. Coins are a licence to use the arcade, not money, a deposit, a stored-value account or a currency.

Coins, Prize Tickets and prizes from the daily wheel have no cash value. They can't be withdrawn, sold, transferred or exchanged for money, and Prize Tickets can't be exchanged for coins. Gems Arcadia is an arcade of games of skill for entertainment: you can't bet on outcomes and you can't win money.

• Coins can't be withdrawn, cashed out or paid out in any way.
• Coins can't be transferred, gifted, sold or traded to another player or account.
• Coins don't expire. They stay in your wallet for as long as your account is open and the arcade is running.
• You get coins by buying coin packs, and sometimes for free: a welcome bonus for new players, daily wheel prizes, achievement rewards, challenge prizes and support credits. Free coins work exactly like bought coins.

PRICES

Coin packs are sold at the Token Booth (/wallet). Each pack shows how many coins you get, including any bonus coins, and its price in the checkout currency (South African rand for most players). The price shown at the Token Booth is the full price you pay, and it is the amount sent to checkout. It includes any taxes that apply. Coins are delivered digitally, so there are no delivery charges and we don't add any other fees. Your bank may charge its own fees, for example for foreign-currency card payments.

We may change pack prices or the packs on offer at any time, but a change never affects a purchase you have already started or completed. If we display a price that is obviously wrong, we may cancel the purchase and refund you in full.

PAYING

When you choose a pack you are sent to a secure checkout page run by Paystack, our payment processor. You pay with the methods Paystack offers you there (for example a card). Paystack only processes the payment: Gems Arcadia is the seller, and we, not Paystack, are responsible for the coins, customer support, refunds and complaints. We never see or store your full card details.

You can review the pack and its price on the Token Booth and on the Paystack page, and you can cancel at any point before you confirm payment. Nothing is charged if you cancel or the payment fails.

DELIVERY

Coins are credited to your wallet only after Paystack confirms that your payment succeeded. This usually happens within seconds of paying. Each purchase is credited once. If your payment went through but your coins haven't arrived within an hour, use the Contact page (/contact) with your Paystack reference and we will sort it out.

YOUR PURCHASE HISTORY

Your wallet (/wallet) shows your coin balance and the history of coins added and spent while you are signed in. Paystack also emails a receipt for each payment to the address used at checkout.

SPENDING COINS

Coins are taken from your wallet when you insert them and the credit starts. A spent coin is used up. If a game fails to start or breaks during a credit because of a fault on our side or the developer's side, use the Contact page (/contact) and we will put the coins back where we can confirm the fault. If we credit coins to your wallet by mistake (for example a duplicate credit), we may remove them again.

Our Refund and Cancellation Policy (/refunds) is the full and authoritative policy, and it forms part of these terms. It explains your cooling-off rights under section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, what happens if you were charged in error or without your permission, and how to ask for a refund.

In short: ask us first, refunds are paid back through Paystack to the original payment method, and coins that are refunded are removed from your wallet. Nothing in these terms or in that policy takes away your rights under the Consumer Protection Act or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.

These are our ways of saying thanks for playing. None of them involves a bet, and none of them pays out money.

THE DAILY PRIZE WHEEL

• Every signed-in player gets one free spin per day. Days run from midnight to midnight UTC (02:00 to 02:00 South African time).
• No purchase is necessary. Spins are never sold, and buying coins doesn't give you extra spins or better odds.
• A spin can land a small number of coins, XP or Prize Tickets. Spinning on consecutive days builds a streak that improves the chance of the rarer prizes. The prizes on the wheel can change.
• Missed days can't be spun later, and a missed day resets the streak.

PRIZE TICKETS

• Prize Tickets are a separate reward balance. You earn them by playing: personal bests, top-ten scores, achievements, challenges and the daily wheel.
• Prize Tickets can't be bought and can't be exchanged for coins, money or anything outside the arcade.

THE PRIZE COUNTER

• You can redeem Prize Tickets at the Prize Counter (/prize-counter) for cosmetic items: avatar frames, name colours, cabinet skins and title badges.
• Cosmetics only change how your profile and cabinets look. They have no cash value, can't be transferred or resold, and some are limited in stock. Once redeemed, an item stays in your inventory and the tickets aren't returned.
• There are no physical goods, vouchers or cash prizes.

CHALLENGES AND LEADERBOARDS

Challenges and leaderboards rank players on skill, such as high scores or games played, within a set time window. Each challenge page shows its rules and rewards. Rewards can be coins, Prize Tickets, XP or a cosmetic item, and are credited automatically when the challenge ends. Challenge rewards follow the same rules as all other coins and tickets: they have no cash value and can't be withdrawn. We may disqualify scores, entries or rewards obtained by cheating (see section 8).

Coins, Prize Tickets and prizes from the daily wheel have no cash value. They can't be withdrawn, sold, transferred or exchanged for money, and Prize Tickets can't be exchanged for coins. Gems Arcadia is an arcade of games of skill for entertainment: you can't bet on outcomes and you can't win money.

• Most games in the arcade are made by independent developers, not by us. Each game page names its studio. We review games before they go live, and we can suspend a game at any time.
• Games run in a sandboxed frame that can't read your login or your wallet. Developers receive only an anonymous player reference from us, never your email address. A developer is paid a share of the coin value spent on their game.
• We sell the coins and run the wallet, so coin and payment questions come to us, even when the problem is with a game.
• We don't guarantee that any particular game will stay available, keep its current coin cost, or keep your in-game progress or high scores. Developers can update or withdraw their games.
• If a game breaks these terms or misbehaves, report it to us.

WHAT IS PUBLIC

• Your public profile (/players/your-handle): your handle, display name, bio, avatar, equipped cosmetics, level, achievements, and the players and studios you follow.
• Your leaderboard entries: your score and the three-letter initials you enter.
• Your reviews: star rating, title and text, shown with your display name. Developers can reply publicly.
• Your activity in the public activity feed (for example new high scores and achievements), unless you switch this off in your settings.

Your email address is never shown publicly. Our Privacy Policy (/privacy) explains what we collect and how we use it.

YOUR CONTENT

You keep ownership of what you write (your handle, bio and reviews). You give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, display and reproduce it on the arcade, for as long as it stays on the arcade, so that we can run the service. You confirm that you have the right to post it.

REVIEWS AND MODERATION

• You can review a game once you have played it, one review per game, and you can edit your review later. To have a review removed, contact us. Reviews must be your honest opinion of the game.
• Don't post reviews in exchange for payment or rewards, about your own games, or to attack a developer or player.
• Players can report reviews. Reported reviews may be flagged for our moderators, who can hide reviews that break these terms. We can also remove or change handles, bios and other content that breaks these terms.

Play fair and keep the arcade fun for every hero. You must not:

• cheat, including using bots, scripts, modified clients or exploits to post scores, earn rewards or spin the wheel;
• create or use more than one account to collect welcome bonuses, daily spins, challenge places or other rewards;
• buy, sell, trade or offer coins, Prize Tickets, cosmetics or accounts for money or anything else, inside or outside the arcade;
• use the arcade, coins or prizes for betting, wagering or gambling of any kind;
• use a payment method you aren't authorised to use, or make a purchase with the intent to reverse it;
• harass, threaten, bully or impersonate anyone, or post hateful, sexual, violent, defamatory, illegal or misleading content, spam or advertising;
• post anyone else's personal information;
• upload malware, interfere with or overload the service, probe or bypass our security, or access accounts, data or systems that aren't yours;
• scrape or copy the arcade or its games except as allowed by law; or
• break any law, or help anyone else do any of these things.

If we reasonably believe you have broken this section, we may remove content, cancel scores, entries or rewards gained through the breach, reverse coins or tickets credited because of it, and suspend or close your account under section 10.

• The arcade, including its design, art, characters (such as Glint), sounds, text, software and the Gems Arcadia name, belongs to us or our licensors.
• Each game belongs to its developer or their licensors.
• We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the arcade and play its games for your own entertainment, under these terms. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell or reverse-engineer any part of it except where the law allows you to.
• If you believe something on the arcade infringes your rights, use the Contact page (/contact) with details and we will look into it.

IF YOU WANT TO LEAVE

You can stop using the arcade at any time. To close your account, use the Contact page (/contact). We will close it and deal with your personal information as our Privacy Policy describes. Coins and Prize Tickets left in a closed account are lost, so spend them first or ask about a refund of unspent purchased coins under our Refund and Cancellation Policy (/refunds) before you close.

IF WE SUSPEND OR CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT

We may suspend or close your account, or remove access to features, if you materially break these terms (for example section 8), if your payments are fraudulent or reversed, or if the law requires us to. Unless it would be unlawful, unsafe or would help someone continue the breach, we will tell you why and give you a chance to respond.

• If we close your account because you broke these terms, coins and Prize Tickets in it are forfeited, except where the law requires otherwise. Coins obtained through fraud, chargebacks or cheating are removed in any case.
• If we close your account for any other reason (not because you broke these terms), or we shut the arcade down, we will refund the purchase price of your unspent purchased coins to the original payment method. We will give you reasonable notice before shutting down, where we can. Free coins, Prize Tickets and cosmetics have no cash value and aren't refunded.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including 9, 11, 12 and 14) continue after your account is closed.

Please read this section carefully. It limits our responsibility to you.

• Your rights under the Consumer Protection Act and other law always apply, and nothing in these terms excludes or limits a right or liability that the law does not allow to be excluded or limited. In particular, we don't exclude liability for loss caused by our gross negligence, fraud or wilful misconduct.
• We work hard to keep the arcade running, but it is provided online and over the internet. We don't promise that it will always be available, uninterrupted or free of errors, or that any particular game will be available. We may need to take it offline for maintenance or repairs.
• Third-party games are provided by their developers. To the extent the law allows, we aren't responsible for a developer's game content or for loss caused by a game, beyond restoring coins under section 3.
• To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, data or opportunity.
• To the extent the law allows, our total liability to you for any claim related to the arcade is limited to the amount you paid us for coins in the 12 months before the event that gave rise to the claim.
• We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as power outages (including load-shedding), internet or payment-provider outages, natural disasters or acts of government.

• If something is wrong with a payment, please use the Contact page (/contact) first. We are the seller, so we handle refunds and disputes ourselves, and it is usually much faster than going through your bank.
• If you dispute a payment with your bank or card issuer (a chargeback), Paystack will notify us and we will respond. We may share relevant records of the purchase and of how its coins were used, such as dates, amounts, the Paystack reference and the wallet history, with Paystack and the card networks to answer the dispute.
• If the chargeback is decided in your favour, we remove the coins that purchase delivered from your wallet, up to your current balance. Raising a chargeback in good faith never limits your rights under these terms, our Refund and Cancellation Policy (/refunds) or the law.
• If your card or account was used without your permission, tell us and your bank straight away. Section 46 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and our Refund and Cancellation Policy (/refunds) explain what happens next.

We keep adding games and features, and we may change or remove features, rewards and prizes from time to time. Changes don't take away coins you already have.

We may update these terms, for example to reflect new features or changes in the law. The date at the top shows when they last changed. If a change materially affects your rights, we will tell you by email or on the site at least 14 days before it takes effect, unless the change is required by law sooner. If you don't agree with a change, you can close your account before it takes effect and section 10 applies as if we had closed it for a reason other than a breach. If you keep using the arcade after the change takes effect, the new terms apply.

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

1. Talk to us first. If you have a complaint, use the Contact page (/contact). Tell us what happened and what you would like us to do.
2. If we can't resolve it, you can refer your complaint to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (CGSO), the National Consumer Commission, or a provincial consumer affairs office or consumer court, as the Consumer Protection Act allows.
3. You can also go to court. Disputes may be heard by the courts of South Africa with jurisdiction, including the small claims court where the claim qualifies.

If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later. You may not transfer your rights under these terms to anyone else. These terms, together with the policies they refer to, are the whole agreement between you and us about using the arcade.

Questions about these terms, a purchase or your account? Use the Contact page (/contact). Our business details, including our address for legal notices, are on the Contact page.