GameStops In Philadelphia To Start Fingerprinting Customers Who Trade-in Games

If the movies and TV shows are any indication, selling off stolen goods to pawn shops is a great way to unload them while making a quick buck. However in real life, that happens too and not only are valuable items such as jewelry, phones, cameras, and etc. that are being sold off, but video games as well.

After all there is a huge market for second-hand video games which are typically a lot more affordable than brand new. That being said, it seems that GameStop has recently made it a requirement for their customers in the city of Philadelphia to provide them with fingerprints when trading in used games.

The goal is to prevent theft and so that authorities can better track down thieves who use GameStop’s stores as a pawn shop. According to a statement GameStop released to Kotaku, they claim that this is a process they began in early July at the request of the Philadelphia police department. They also claim that the fingerprint scan is a practice they have also deployed in other parts of the US in compliance with second-hand or pawn broker laws.

Naturally there are many customers who aren’t too thrilled about providing their fingerprints. After all it does seem like a very personal thing to be giving up, but some have complained because it made them feel like a criminal, but what do you guys think? Could this help deter video game theft in the future?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: gamestop, Legal