Loot Boxes: What Are They And Are They Gambling?
Are Loot Boxes Gambling?
If you’re sitting on the sofa playing on your PS4 or Xbox, and you’re in the middle of either League of Legends, Halo 5, Battlefield, or Call of Duty, then you’ll already know what loot boxes are. And you’ll also know the effect it has on both the player and the game-play itself. Right now this has become the newest cause célèbre for the media. They are throwing all the toys out of the pram as they claim the negative effects of having loot boxes in games for kids. This has given the iGaming industry a fright, as they are just getting started with their own loot box strategy.
What Are Loot Boxes?
Also known as “loot crates” these are mystery boxes which can be purchased within a video game. Rather like gambling sites with multiple jackpots. You can buy then with either real-world money or the virtual money you’ll find in use in the game itself. They are simply the evolution of what was once called “the loop drop system” which, to quote the games manuals, was there to “give out randomized rewards in massively multiplayer online role-playing games”. You should look at loot crates as an entertainment portion of the iGaming industry. Also we should note that they bring in huge sums of money for the game developers.
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The History of Loot Crates
Loot boxes first appeared way back in 2004, in the Japanese game of MapleStory, a side-scrolling MMORPG game. Within the game they were called “Gachapon ticket”, and each was valued at around 10 Yen. It took until 2010, for the west to see it’s first loot crate. This appeared in Team Fortress 2. And you can thank Valve for this, as they introduced a system whereby you could earn random “loot crates”. You then needed to buy the keys with which to open them. Soon Electronic Arts (EA) was to follow suit with FIFA Ultimate Team. With this, players could use digital cards to help build up teams.
Are They For The Kids?
In August of 2013, we saw loot boxes appearing in games such as Counter-Strike, Battlefield 4 (which called them “battle packs”). This was followed by Call of Duty, which included the loot boxes in the random equipment drops. Loot boxes became an instant hit. For many people, the view is that they are nothing more than an extension of the game-play. But others saw them as encouraging gambling. This was particularly troublesome as the majority of customers playing these games were kids. And that’s why in 2017, many games companies pulled loot crates from their games stable. These included titles like Middle-Earth: Shadows of War, Star Wars Battlefront II, and Forza Moto.
As to the question to whether loot boxes constitute gambling, different countries have equally different views on this matter. Some have opted for an outright ban, whilst others have decided that the best way forwards to look into research on them. There are still many jackpot games out there being played today, that feature these prizes. In the same way, there is also other random content and extra features that you can pay extra for, depending on the country where you’re situated.
Are Loot Boxes Illegal?
It all depends upon where you are in the world. There are some countries which have put their collective foot down. In Belgium for example, there was a banning of all loot boxes appearing in games from 2018. The Netherlands and Sweden are investigating the effects of loot boxes before making any decision. It should be noteworthy that in both Poland and Australia, loot boxes and their appearance in games is not regarded as gambling.
The legality of gambling has always been a tricky subject to answer solely because of our collective inability to gather every country’s viewpoint on gambling. Then place it in a single box and apply comprehensive, all-inclusive regulations. The same predicament applies to decide whether loot crates are illegal or not. After the 2018 Gambling Regulators European Forum, 16 jurisdictions including Malta, Austria, France, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Ireland, Czech Republic, Jersey, Latvia, Norway, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, the US, and the UK signed an agreement to inspect the role of loot crates in the gaming marketplace.
Loot Boxes Are Gambling
Loot boxes were happily flying under the radar as far as gambling was concerned. But then, some folks came forward and expressed their addiction to them. The general idea was that loot boxes were encouraging people to spend more than they should as if on gambling. Of course, when you compare sites with jackpots against sites with loot crates, you can see that they are totally different. This put loot boxes and the gaming companies firmly in the sites of the House of Commons. There it was laid out that, “video game loot boxes should be regulated as gambling and children barred from purchasing them”. After a month-long parliamentary hearing, there was finally a decition that “loot boxes are gambling if they are purchased for real money and as such should be regulated as a game of chance under the Gambling Act 2005″.
The chair of the committee, Damian Collins said, loot boxes are particularly lucrative for games companies but come at a high cost, particularly for problem gamblers, while exposing children to potential harm.” He then added that it was high time for the Government to explain why loot boxes should be excluded from the Gambling Act when “buying a loot box is playing a game of chance.”
Loot Crates Are Not Gambling
The real problem with cases like those of gambling addiction being associated with loot boxes is that the media will swarm over any story that they can sensationalize. Let’s all throw our hands up and cry foul. Academics told the hearing that “there was not yet enough evidence on the psychological effects that gambling-style features in games have on children”. Going further on to say this is “partly because the industry has not released data it holds on the subject”. They point out that loot boxes offer much more in entertainment value than say, the best online casinos with jackpots.
Are Loot Boxes Going to Be Banned?
We can’t see them facing a ban just yet. These stories always follow the same pattern. Firstly someone pipes up a story of addiction. Then the media create a complete circus around this, baying for someone’s blood and trying to create a public outrage. Governments jump so as to be seen to be doing something to “fix” this non-existent problem. But after a while, everything dies down as a newer outrage is all over the media. So, now the knee-jerk response is over, governments have more time to really look into the issues at hand.
We think that loot crates will certainly come under greater scrutiny. But as for a total ban, no, we can’t see it ever happening.
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