Gambling the root box in the game? British regulation begins

In-game stochastic cache items (loot boxes) have been a significant source of revenue for game makers. In fact, in the fourth quarter of 2019 alone, EA earned nearly $1 billion in in-game microtransactions. Most of them were due to in-game probabilistic cache items such as FIFA 19 and Star Wars Battlefront 2. EA’s fourth-quarter 2019 revenue was $1.59 billion, but 60 percent of that, or $993 million, comes from EA Live, a microtransaction.

The UK’s Department of Digital Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) is said to have initiated an investigation to protect children from the temptation of in-game cash items and future gambling addiction. As a result, there is a report that there is a possibility to ban in-game probability-type cache items targeting under the age of 18.

Currently, in-game probabilistic cash items are not considered gambling. Leaving it to luck to pay for goods is an act of gambling, but he sees the items that can be obtained here have no real monetary value.

However, some item skins in CounterStrike cost over $1,000. It is difficult to say that digital items have no value. In addition, as a discussion about the adverse effects of in-game probability-type cache items on children last year, DCMS intends to recommend that in-game probability-type cache items be classified as gambling and regulated.

The trend of banning or restricting probabilistic cash items in the game can be seen in the UK as well as elsewhere. Belgium banned it by law early in 2018. All game vendors, which are on the verge of stopping product sales, have removed in-game probabilistic cash items from all games sold in Belgium. In addition, in China, the authorities have made it mandatory to disclose the drop rate of probability-type cash items in games by game companies. That way, gamers can make more informed decisions and curb spending on probabilistic cash items in the game.

In the United States, such measures have not been carried out yet, but they are expected to be overhauled in the future. Large companies such as Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, and Apple have begun asking game developers to reveal the rate of occurrence of probabilistic cache items in games deployed within their platform.

Of course, in the UK, even if the sale of in-game probabilistic cash items to gamers under the age of 18 is prohibited, digital items such as skins can be sold individually, so micro-transactions in the game cannot be completely excluded. Related information can be found here .