SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Are Loot Boxes in Games a Violation of Gambling Laws?
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 92 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
It's not reality that's important, but how you perceive things.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @10:45AM (2 children)
More like the USA has a higher proportion of stupid ignorant people.
For example, the healthcare thing.
If you were one of those who had to pay taxes, universal healthcare would still be the cheaper option for you.
Even a selfish but intelligent sociopath would realize that lots of OTHER people wouldn't be able to tolerate hospitals that intentionally shove the poor out of ER to die in the streets because the poor couldn't pay for treatment.
Treating the poor in ERs is more expensive than treating them via other channels - like normal GPs and clinics.
It's also even more expensive if the poor commit crimes to get money to get healthcare or worse to go to prison and get healthcare in prison (yes it does happen - more than a few people have committed crimes to get healthcare or just "food and lodging" ).
Delivering healthcare (or food and lodging) via the prison industry is far more expensive than just giving it to them "free".
It may cost you in other ways when ERs are closed down due to costs: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/health/18hospital.html [nytimes.com]
One day you might need an ER but there are fewer ERs near you and they are too busy...
The USA's healthcare costs are really higher:
See also: https://cdn.ricochet.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ftotHealthExp_pC_USD_long-1.png [ricochet.com]
https://blogs-images.forbes.com/toddhixon/files/2012/02/MaryMeeker-graph-e1329513274401.jpg?width=960 [forbes.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 09 2018, @02:52PM
Than not paying US prices for universal health care? Right. My take is that even with prisons and ER care, sociopaths are paying less now than they would under a universal health care system, US-style.
Wouldn't be their problem. Don't think you're getting the point. The vast majority of people who claim on SN that people are acting against their self-interest, merely don't understand the self-interest.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @03:25PM
Unless that intelligent sociopath were running a long con on all of us and massively profiting from the popular delusion. I submit the health "insurance" complex.
The problem that the USA has is that too many people who aren't sociopaths (yet always temporarily embarrassed millionaires) don't understand how they're being manipulated and scammed by sociopaths. Only a gaslighting sociopath could successfully sell people individual aspirin tablets at $10 each.