UK Parliament’s DCMS Committee Publishes Report on Tech Industry’s Issues

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the UK Parliament has published a report on issues in the tech industry.

The committee recommends that loot boxes be regulated under the Gambling Act and that these items should not be sold to children. The committee also says that some game industry representatives have “demonstrated a lack of honesty and transparency” in related hearings.

Previously, the UK Gambling Commission ruled that loot boxes cannot be regulated as gambling because there is no mechanism to turn in-game items received into real-world money.

The committee says that “academics broadly acknowledge that there is not yet enough evidence to reliably conclude that loot boxes cause problem gambling.” But while there is no significant evidence that loot boxes cause gambling addiction, the report notes other studies suggest that problem gamblers will often show similar behaviour with loot box mechanics.

The report says “some representatives demonstrated a lack of honesty and transparency” and were “wilfully obtuse” in answering questions about what data is collected about how players engage with games.

The report concludes that “loot boxes that can be bought with real-world money and do not reveal their contents in advance to be games of chance played for money’s worth.”