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posted by
cmn32480
on Monday January 08 2018, @03:34PM
from the 1-in-365,214,231-chance-of-getting-the-good-stuff dept.
from the 1-in-365,214,231-chance-of-getting-the-good-stuff dept.
Loot boxes in video games give the player a random item, perhaps a weapon or a skin, typically in exchange for payment. Should they be viewed as a legal sweepstakes or as an illegal lottery? This video examines the legal issues and explains how loot boxes could be structured to avoid running afoul of gambling laws (which vary by state) in the U.S.. The video concludes that many current implementations of loot boxes are really illegal lotteries, and conjectures that major game companies use them anyway because the risk of being prosecuted isn't enough to dissuade them.
Previously: Belgium Moving to Ban "Loot Boxes" Throughout Europe, Hawaii Could Restrict Sale to Minors
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Are Loot Boxes in Games a Violation of Gambling Laws?
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In Tulsa, Oklahoma, it is against the law to open a soda bottle without
the supervision of a licensed engineer.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Monday January 08 2018, @06:44PM (5 children)
As someone who had to deal with the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, yes, these can be classified as a game of chance. If the game's only means of progression is through some random process, it's a game of chance. Being dealt cards, rolling dice, spinning a Big Six or a roulette wheel, or the slot machine are all games of chance. Even in poker or blackjack where the player interacts by exchanging cards is still beholden to the luck of the draw to make up their deck in order to progress.
An acception would be something like the pachislo machine where the player interacts with the game to reach the conclusion making it a game of skill. For those who don't know, Pachislo is a Japanese slot machine where each wheel is stopped by the player via a button, one for each wheel. The wheels will stop automatically but not after a time out of 10-30 seconds. Games of skill are why you have ring toss, hoop shot, and balloon race games at carnivals and not slots and card tables.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Monday January 08 2018, @09:12PM (2 children)
> As someone who had to deal with the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, yes, these can be classified as a game of chance.
So, if it is not _necessary_ to get a particular item to progress (if you get e bigger gun, it may help, but so would more skill), then the _game_ is not chance? If the items are cosmetic, but tradeable and potentially valuable, then the _game_ is not chance?
Things is, _all_ of the game "loot box" type things I have watched my kids buying fall into those categories, and there are a lot of them. The kids know perfectly well that while the contents of the box _might_ be worth a lot, they'll _probably_ be worth diddly, and if they don't, that is a learning exercise in itself.
Is it gambling? Well, if it is then the football (US s/baseball, Canada s/hockey etc.) trading cards/stickers that we as kids spent all our pocket money on decades ago were also gambling. It doesn't matter if the content is "just some pixels" (one of me kids' words) or a printed card, or a random lego figure, or whatever - the usual outcome is the same, i.e. some common useless crap you've already got three of. But then just occasionally you get lucky and get something really valuable.
Isn't that gambling? Does it matter? Is it illegal? Even those are not the real questions, the real question is _if_ it is gambling and/or illegal then how did the sports trading card folks get away with it for decades (yeah, looking at you Panini, cos I'm still sore at how much I spent trying to get that Man U centre forward when you kept giving me fourth division reserve goalies). [I'm lying, I gave up and never bought a sticker book again... learning exercise]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 08 2018, @10:47PM
"but its only cosmetic" (read in Jim Sterling's voice)
Go fuck yourself. You know for damn well it isn't.
(Score: 2) by https on Tuesday January 09 2018, @09:10PM
You have very strange notions about how primates learn and organize information, and jack shit about how they respond to rewards. Sure, the kids might "know" perfectly well that the loot boxes might have something valuable in it, but if they chance upon one such early on, they'll forever spend everything they've got no matter what odds you tell them.
And that pays back the companies far more than the Asperiffic retards who base every action they take on calculated risk/reward charts could ever cost them.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday January 09 2018, @12:50AM (1 child)
So it's gambling if you roll to hit?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 09 2018, @07:21AM