Belgium’s Gaming Commission has determined that loot boxes in gaming are gambling, according to a report from the news website VTM (first reported by PC Gamer). And the country’s minister of justice Koen Geens says he will try to ban the process of blind, randomized loot boxes completely. This comes after Electronic Arts courted headlines that it was bringing gambling to children in its Star Wars: Battlefront II shooter that launched last week.
The Belgium Gaming Commission ruled that loot boxes are gambling because they mix money and addiction, according to a Google translation of the VTM story.
“Mixing gambling and gaming, especially at a young age, is dangerous for the mental health of the child,” Geens said in a statement.
In response to this finding, Geens says that Belgium will go to the European Union with the purpose of ending this business model. I’m reaching out to Geens’ office and the Gambling Commission to ask if it will make an except for adults. In their early comments, they have not noted any exceptions to their desire for a ban.
Loot boxes are a major source of revenue for a large portion of the gaming business. They come in the form of character skins and emotes in Overwatch or booster packs in collectible-card games like Hearthstone. Publisher and developers like this model because it enables the most dedicated players to spend an almost unlimited amount of money on their favorite games. This has enabled publishers to go from releasing product after product to supporting one piece of software as a service for years.
EA was going to enable players to pay real money to acquire loot boxes in Battlefront II that would give advantages in multiplayer sessions. That turned into a consumer revolt. Disney even stepped in hours before DICE removed real-money transactions from the game. But that revolt involved a lot of gamers claiming that the government should regulate loot boxes because they are no different than slot machines, and that drew the attention of the Belgium Gaming Commission. Now, this business model is standing on shaky ground, and it could collapse if Europe institutes a ban.
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