While loot boxes were once one of the most common forms of microtransactions in video games, now most gamers feel that loot boxes are a form of gambling thanks to their blind-bag nature. There’s been a lot of discussion in recent years over whether that’s the case or not, and whether governments should step in to regulate loot boxes. To that end, the government of the United Kingdom wants to know people’s thoughts on the matter.
The UK government has been one of the loudest voices in the whole debate over loot boxes, with multiple government figures and entities including the House of Lords calling for loot boxes to be reclassified as gambling. Earlier this summer, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) announced that it would launch an initiative to seek out feedback and gather evidence in order to gain a better understanding of the impact of loot boxes, and today that initiative has begun.
According to the UK government’s website, this call for evidence wants to hear from two different groups specifically. The first group is classified as regular gamers and “adults responsible for children and young people who play video games” while the other is classified as “video games businesses, and researchers and organisations interested in video games and loot boxes.”
The DCMS is accepting replies from both groups until November 22. For the next two months, people who fit in the first group’s demographic can fill out a short loot box-related survey on the department’s website where they can answer questions like how many loot boxes they’ve opened in their lives and how much money they spent on them. As for the second group, the DCMS is offering a more formal form for businesses to fill out in order to provide their perspective on the ethics of making money off loot boxes.
All this feedback will eventually factor into a government review of the Gambling Act 2005 specifically focusing on “tackling issues around online loot boxes.” This could lead to the law extending its regulations to loot boxes, an action that more and more people have been calling on the government to take. Among them is Claire Murdoch, mental health director of the National Health Service, who warned back in January that loot boxes can lead to gambling addictions among young people.
In the past year, there has been mounting evidence supporting a correlation between loot boxes and gambling. Although measures have been taken in recent times to make loot boxes more transparent, like making it required to disclose loot box odds on consoles, it remains to be seen if these will be enough to spare them from government oversight in the UK and elsewhere.
Source: Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
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