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'Loot Boxes' Declared Gambling by Belgium GC & Hawaii HoR, Both Seek Bans in Europe and the US

Loot_Box.jpg


In a very sudden development on the hot-button topic of 'loot boxes' and gambling in video games, the Belgium Gaming Commission has completed their investigation on the matter and have concluded that in-game 'loot boxes' are a form of gambling, and will likely be banned in Belgium. This could entail hundreds of thousands of Euros in fines towards Electronic Arts and other offending companies, as well as a ban on sales of games with loot boxes until companies acquire a gambling license or remove the feature from their games. What's more, Belgium is seeking to classify loot boxes as gambling across the entirety of Europe. Currently, the Dutch Gambling Authority has launched a similar investigation.

The Belgium Gaming Commission's statement roughly read, "The mixing of money and addiction is gambling." Belgium's Minister of Justice also chimed in, saying, "Mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child."

Following quickly after, and in a highly unexpected move, Hawaii House of Representatives rep. Chris Lee (D) held a press conference where he announced that the State of Hawaii would be introducing legislation to curb the "predatory behavior" of companies like Electronic Arts. He explicitly mentions Battlefront 2, calling it a "Star Wars-themed online casino, designed to lure kids into spending money." Highlights from that press conference can be seen here:



Lee said that new legislation in the coming year will target predatory microtransaction practices and that Hawaii would be speaking with other states to introduce similar legislation elsewhere in the United States. Parents also took the podium at the press conference to express their own concerns about loot boxes and microtransactions. Lee later wrote a Reddit post explaining the announcement, which can be read in its entirety by following this link. In the post, he calls on US citizens to contact their state legislatures and demand action against predatory microtransaction practices in the gaming industry.

The speed at which regulatory bodies are reacting to the loot box controversy is astounding. These developments come in the wake of EA's botched microtransaction scheme in Star Wars: Battlefront II that led to a Reddit post by an EA representative becoming the most downvoted comment in the website's history, prompting Disney to intervene and garnering mainstream media coverage on popular news outlets like CNN. This spells trouble not just for EA, but for all major publishers, including Activision-Blizzard, Ubisoft, 2K Games, and any other company engaging in 'loot box' practices and predatory microtransaction schemes.

Oh, how the tides turn.

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KingVamp

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Doesn't seem like EA is stopping. It is like they are trying to cause another game crash. Some kind of regulation(s) has to happen. Companies, especially EA, only have themselves to blame.

It seem these Lootboxes are in their own mode, that doesn't make it any better. Not to mention, they are probably planning to have it for the main play for the series later on.
 

smf

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People with "buying disorders" should have carers, that's not my problem.

That's like saying that all drugs should be legal because some people can cope with taking them, or that there should be no speed limits because you can drive at 100 mp/h without crashing.

All people have bad judgement. You just haven't noticed yet.

If developers keep pushing this then it's bound to get regulated & it will be their own fault.

If your argument is that "gambling-like" mechanisms in gaming cause suffering to some undetermined group of gamers that we're yet to observe, that's a pretty big claim and I'll need some evidence of that occurring. Please show me the families that got torn apart or the cars that were impounded because of Overwatch.

Most addictions take a while to get a hold and do it's damage. You could give a child cigarettes and alcohol and claim they were safe because nothing bad happened the first time.
 
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You know, when they focus so heavily on buzz-phrases like "family" and "protecting children", while also bringing in a representative to talk about religion's view on the matter, of all things, I can't help but feel a chill. I'm very much against these kinds of practices being implemented in video games, but I can't help but feel like I'm unintentionally on the side of the typical, overly-frenzied mommies and church people, who can't or don't think beyond the walls of their own skull, being whipped up in fear mongering and desperately pressing for legislation that ends up putting more of a restriction on the typical citizen than any companies. I don't know, but when my side is being argued in part by an old, blank-faced religious man coming onto television and proclaiming "this is EVIL!!!", I can't help but feel more than a little uneasy. That being said, I am still tentatively glad that the lootbox mechanic is at least getting some attention, even if I worry this whole craze may become a runaway train.
 

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So, no one can be religious and talk about children and family on a topic without you having a chill? Seems like very strong prejudice and bias.
 

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Given the "would be comical but actually affects things so not" misunderstandings legislation types have brought us in the past I would not only wait for it to be ratified but also tested in courts before declaring good. Given gambling, much less it also being tied to those awful vidya games (have they spouted the term gateway yet?), is the sort of thing the US public also seems to allow them to be really harsh on, with said legislators being all too happy to play up to,... yeah.
 

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