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Video Game Loot Boxes are now Considered Criminal Gambling in Belgium

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

MrPlow writes:

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 arcz on Tuesday May 01 2018, @07:45PM (7 children)

    by arcz (4501) on Tuesday May 01 2018, @07:45PM (#674282) Journal
    This is stupid. Gambling should require you to get some kind of reward. In Overwatch you get "loot boxes" and last time I played it, those weren't tradable. :/ Is every random drop "gambling" when you pay for the game? Even CS:GO crates which give tradable items shouldn't be regulated under gambling. Aren't they just reskins, cosmetic items with no ingame advantages to their free counterparts? As long as it's costmetic only, I don't think there should be a problem. Of course, I'd have an issue with random "gambling" for items that give the player a non-cosmetic advantage. But if the only thing that makes it "gambling" is the resale value to other players for a cosmetic skin, that doesn't really sound like gambling to me.
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  • (Score: 2) by arcz on Tuesday May 01 2018, @08:10PM (2 children)

    by arcz (4501) on Tuesday May 01 2018, @08:10PM (#674293) Journal
    To clarify: Any time you give players random skins for a given price, even if you have the exact same chance of getting every skin, some will be more valuable than others simply because players like particular looks better. The only way you can fix that is to either: A) ban trading items, B) ban trading items for real money, C) force purchasing game items to have no random chances, or D) make purchasing cosmetic enhancements not allowed All of these are terrible ideas, A is terrible because it ruins the social element of trading in these types of games, which can greatly increase the lifespan of the game. B is terrible because it doesn't actually work (players can, and will, exchange money outside the game's framework as long as they can trade the items themselves). C is terrible for economic and social reasons (*1). D is terrible because it would force players to buy non-cosmetic upgrades and give paying players and unfair advantage over free players. In a healthy game, free players are at equal footing with paying players. People pay to "look cool". This is actually a really effective model for video games. To understand why players will spend more money on premium cosmetic items that give no advantages vs non-cosmetic items that give real advantages, you simply have to look at how individuals react to the system. A player isn't going to respect you if they think you're only good because you payed more money. Also, spending $100 on an in-game advantage makes people leave the game. Why would I play a game where I don't stand a chance against someone who paid more money? When the game dies, the game sucks for people with money too since there isn't anyone to play against. In other words, the game must value the non-paying players just like the paying players. Games that scare away the non-paying players will lose the paying ones too simply because games are boring when there aren't other people to play it with. Contrast this to cosmetic items. If some player has a $1,000 virtual hat, I don't feel any hesitation to fight that player, a free player can still enjoy the game. The super-premium hat might make him look "cool" but I'm still on a level playing field mechanics wise. The dynamics that get someone to buy a $1,000 hat are social status, not in-game advantages. Social status is a much better way to get people to buy things than in-game advantages. But things don't become valuable because you charge a lot. If someone paid $1,000 to buy a virtual item from the game's developers, it'd be stupid. The only way the game developers can make items have that much value is by making them rare, which requires chance. If things aren't chance based, only die hard video game players will have the rare items and they'll be seen as the mark of a neckbeard, not social status. There's a fine line between being a dumbass about rarity (like getting useless shit most of the time, I'm looking at you new TF2 rarity and wear tiers) and balancing it just right. TL;DR: Random chance drops are essential for a healthy trading economy in the game.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 01 2018, @08:18PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 01 2018, @08:18PM (#674297)

      Not bad content.

      Please fix your Enter key.

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by arcz on Tuesday May 01 2018, @08:26PM

        by arcz (4501) on Tuesday May 01 2018, @08:26PM (#674301) Journal
        I did hit enter, I forget to switch to "plain old text" though.

  • (Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday May 01 2018, @08:41PM (2 children)

    by sjames (2882) on Tuesday May 01 2018, @08:41PM (#674310) Journal

    There must be some sort of reward or nobody would pay for them.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Tuesday May 01 2018, @09:27PM (1 child)

      by Freeman (732) on Tuesday May 01 2018, @09:27PM (#674321) Journal

      Please note, gambling can be a real addiction and ruin lives easily. Maybe, I'll get lucky this time! Just one more! It's like playing civilization for just one more turn, then it's 4AM and you're like huh?!? Assuming you've never had that experience or a similar one, it may be hard to explain just how messed up things like this can be. Loot Boxes are "semi-fine gray area okay", if they are Free or for cosmetics only. Beyond that, they're just a system to milk money from the users/gamblers.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"

      • (Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Tuesday May 01 2018, @11:20PM

        by Fnord666 (652) on Tuesday May 01 2018, @11:20PM (#674360) Homepage

        It's like playing civilization for just one more turn, then it's 4AM and you're like huh?!?

        Ah yes, the old "what the hell is that glare on my monitor? Oh, the sun is coming up!" kind of a night.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Tuesday May 01 2018, @09:57PM

    by darkfeline (1030) on Tuesday May 01 2018, @09:57PM (#674329) Homepage

    Random drops are fine. Paying for a chance at a lottery box is gambling (or a lottery, which is usually also regulated, e.g. in the US).

    --
    Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!