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posted by cmn32480 on Monday January 08 2018, @03:34PM   Printer-friendly
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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  • (Score: 2) by https on Tuesday January 09 2018, @09:10PM

    by https (5248) on Tuesday January 09 2018, @09:10PM (#620217) Journal

    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.

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