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posted by janrinok on Tuesday May 01 2018, @06:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the would-you-have-bet-on-that? dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

FIFA, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: GO could face fines and prison penalties.

The Belgian Gaming Commission has determined that randomized loot boxes in at least three games count as "games of chance," and publishers could therefore be subject to fines and prison sentences under the country's gaming legislation.

A statement by Belgian Minister of Justice Koen Geens (machine translation) identifies loot boxes in Overwatch, FIFA 18, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive as meeting the criteria for that "game of chance" definition: i.e., "there is a game element [where] a bet can lead to profit or loss and chance has a role in the game." The Commission also looked at Star Wars: Battlefront II and determined that the recent changes EA made to the game means it "no longer technically forms a game of chance."

Beyond that simple definition, the Gaming Commission expressed concern over games that draw in players with an "emotional profit forecast" of randomized goods, where players "buy an advantage with real money without knowing what benefit it would be." The fact that these games don't disclose the odds of receiving specific in-game items is also worrisome, the Commission said.

[...] Belgium's decision follows on a similar finding in the Netherlands, which specifically called out loot boxes in FIFA 18, DotA 2, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, and Rocket League for illegal gambling activities. In the United States, legislators in Hawaii, Washington state, and the US Senate continue to look into loot box regulations, even as industry bodies like the Entertainment Software Rating Board downplay the need for such actions.

[ TMB Note: We deeply apologize for using that word outside of a serious screenplay. ]

Source: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/04/video-game-loot-boxes-are-now-considered-criminal-gambling-in-belgium/


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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 01 2018, @06:44PM (12 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 01 2018, @06:44PM (#674257) Journal

    We deeply apologize for using that word outside of a serious screenplay.

    Which word?

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday May 01 2018, @07:04PM (2 children)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Tuesday May 01 2018, @07:04PM (#674265) Journal

    The one for which they can be granted an award, the Rory [wikia.com], for using gratuitously but only in a Serious Screenplay. Although I don't see that word here.

    Time to go off and assemble a key if I can. Now where did I put that Silver Bail?

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    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Tuesday May 01 2018, @09:23PM (1 child)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 01 2018, @09:23PM (#674320) Journal

      Although I don't see that word here.

      Belgium.

      • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday May 02 2018, @07:38PM

        by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Wednesday May 02 2018, @07:38PM (#674717) Journal

        Look, you turlingdrome, stop swutting your nasty joojooflops around here or I'll have to rend you in the gobblewarts with my blundercruncheon!

        But even though I now remember thanks to your fnord-destroying recitation, and I know that must have been the first version of the Guide I read, I think I spent long enough years listening to the unabridged audiobooks to have completely forgotten the Americanization.

        Now off to see if I can construct even longer run-ons! But Thanks for the Memories! (and all the Fish!)

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  • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday May 01 2018, @07:10PM (7 children)

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 01 2018, @07:10PM (#674267) Journal
    I didn't know which word either - but not being a gamer I decided that TMB probably has much more knowledge than I do on the subject so I let it pass. Perhaps you have to be a very enthusiastic gamer to be 'in the know'. Well, that rules me out then.....
    • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Tuesday May 01 2018, @07:45PM (1 child)

      by Snotnose (1623) on Tuesday May 01 2018, @07:45PM (#674283)

      I'm an enthusiastic gamer and I don't know which word either.

      I blame Janrinok

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      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 01 2018, @07:56PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 01 2018, @07:56PM (#674286) Journal

        a bet can lead to profit or loss and chance has a role in the game

        Maybe it is the word 'role' which can apply to screenplay or something that you order with coffee. (spelled differently)

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        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 01 2018, @10:08PM (4 children)

      It's not a gamer thing, it's a literacy thing. From a book by one of you Brits' greatest authors even. Turn in your bangers and mash.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @12:07AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @12:07AM (#674369)

        So, which damn word??

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Tuesday May 01 2018, @08:12PM

    by sjames (2882) on Tuesday May 01 2018, @08:12PM (#674295) Journal

    And with Towel Day [wikipedia.org] so close no less. Tsk Tsk!