In the two years since loot boxes exploded in popularity, child gambling in the UK quadrupled. Loot boxes themselves have been named in the UK Gambling Commission’s report.
As more countries recognized loot boxes as gambling, reports like this and others found around the world only pave the way for government intervention, and all because the “AAA” game industry couldn’t control its own gambling problem.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46286945
#LootBoxes #Gambling #JimSterling #IndustryBS
*SHOCK*
Who could have guessed.
Excellent. Glad to see that parliament recognises it as gambling now ?
Literally reading this on the SKy News app. This is bad, and yet good news. Hopefully something will be done about this and force this scourge t be removed from games both current and future.
More clamping down on lootboxes sounds good.
But remember, “ThEy’Re JuSt OpTiOnAl!”
Wow, who would expect, that if you drown games in lootboxes that, it has a negative effect on the psycholigy! Totaly unexpected. @.@
Lol I got a casino advertisement before this
Wait, you’re telling me if you get kids hooked on gambling from a young age while swearing up and down it’s not gambling you might end up with kids predisposed to gambling? I can’t even process this.
Remember when pointy polygon titties were the scariest thing in video games?
“Regulations are written in blood- [because in the endless pursuit of profit companies has literally lead to the death of workers they’re exploiting]” (At least so I understood the phrase from a post I read).
But yeah. Thank God for Jim. Jim gets it.
*DO YOU GUYS NOT HAVE A GAMBLING PROBLEMS!?*
I hope they take EA and Activision to court for flagrantly breaking the law.
B-b-but player choice!
Player freeeedddoooommmm!
N-N-NOOOOOOOO
Place you bets on Sterling. He keeps on getting it right.
Place your Sterling on Sterling perhaps ?
From gambling to *CHILD* gambling. Welp, you’re doomed loot boxes. The child tag has just been planted on you.
If take two, EA, Activision and Bethesda all went bust tomorrow. I’d celebrate because we’d likely start to have some interesting games hit the scene that I might be interested in playing. So bring on the regulations.
Don’t apologise Jim, we need your campaigning voice – every little helps resist the normalisation of shoddy & predatory tactics by profit-greedy industry sharks and thank God for you I say.
Jim, that ‘Waiting for Players’ screen, is that looking up EA’s sphincter?
The Video Game industry self-regulates with the ESRB in the US and PEGI in the UK to prevent the direct sale of violent video games to children.
It seems hypocritical that they’re abandoning the moral high ground with the Loot Box/Gambling features, but it’s not.
The self-regulation with the rating system was implemented to prevent lawsuits that would cost them more money than they’d stand to make.
However, they’re allowing gambling through loot boxes because they stand to make far more money than they would currently lose fighting the lawsuits in court. Once the legal system catches up and starts treating the Loot Box system for what it is (Child Gambling) and they stand to lose money, the video game industry will remove loot-boxes entirely.