Dutch gambling authority acts tough on lootboxes on games

In an unprecedented move, the Dutch Gambling Authority has assumed a tough stance on lootboxes on games. The organisation conducted a research on the activities of 10 popular games with lootboxes containing digital items. The research found that, among these 10 games, four games had lootboxes that could be bought with real-world currency and their contents could be sold on digitally.

Since these items have a genuine value and the players can make money from the rarer items, the authority deemed that lootboxes must be classified as gambling under the Dutch law.

Marja Appelman, the director of the Dutch Gambling Authority, said:  “They’re designed to be gambling games and give the player the feeling that they almost won. There are all kinds of audio- and visual effects when you open a lootbox. This gives a player the urge to keep going.”

The lootboxes of remaining six games contain items that cannot be traded and hence there is breaking of the Dutch gambling laws. Still, the gambling authority takes a critical view of these lootboxes, particularly in games marketed for all ages.

Consequently, the Dutch gambling authority has given the game publishers and developers eight weeks to change their games. If they fail to carry out the required changes, it will result in a fine or the ban of the offending games.

While lootboxes aren’t yet classed as gambling across the majority of the world, I do think publishers need to take a long hard look at themselves and think about what they’re doing. At the very least there are discussions to be had about whether they are classified as gambling, and that’s a very different beast to the entertainment gaming products these publishers all originally set out to make. If they’d had the decency to respect their audience and not solely attempt to extract every penny, this wouldn’t have had to reach this legislative level, but a few choice offenders didn’t know where to draw the line.

It’s predatory, it can be dangerous, and in some cases, it’s instilling the risk/reward feeling of genuine gambling, oftentimes in games that are marketed as child-friendly. Any other form of gambling is heavily regulated, and yet you’ve got games like Rocket League which are rated ‘E’ for Everyone, offering up crates, keys and randomised drops that can then be sold through marketplaces. “I call on all game companies not to make loot boxes accessible to children anymore and to remove addictive elements,” said Appelman.

Source: game-debate.com