British MPs: Surprise boxes in gambling video games must be banned on children

Lawmakers in the UK are investigating the mechanism of action of the Loot Box found in many video games to see if it should be considered gambling.

Surprise guns are virtual boxes that include surprises for players such as weapons, armor, or other things, but players buy them without knowing their content, either with virtual money from the game itself or real money.

The UK government's Digital, Cultural, Media and Sports Committee has issued a report condemning the gaming industry's lack of "honesty and transparency" about potential harm to gaming mechanisms, such as surprise boxes.

The report also recommended that games with surplus boxes should be considered gambling and therefore prohibited from being sold specifically to children.

As evidence of this recommendation, the report cites the 2018 Gambling Commission survey, which found that 31% of 11- to 16-year-olds paid money or used in-game items to open surprise boxes.

The report also referred specifically to the FIFA game series, because of its “blatant” use of the Surprise Box mechanism, because game developer Electronic Arts says that nearly half of the extra digital content it earns comes from surplus boxes, such as the “Perfect Team” style. In FIFA, because the rewards the player receives in one game cannot be transferred to the next game in the series.

The report cites an example of a player spending £ 800 to £ 1,000 a year on FIFA because of this mechanism.

The Committee acknowledges that there is no conclusive evidence that the use of surprise boxes can turn people into gamblers, but points to studies of teenagers showing that they are more likely than adults to develop habits of gambling problems as a result of playing surprise box games.

EA refuses to describe its system of surplus funds as exploitative, telling parliament that these funds are "mechanisms of surprise" and "in fact very moral and enjoyable," but the committee was not convinced by this recommendation and recommended that "surplus boxes with luck should not be sold." To children playing games. "

It also recommended that games with surplus boxes that can be purchased with real money should be classified as gambling and the relevant gambling laws apply.

Of course, the committee's recommendations are not lawful, but the government could decide to take the recommendations and start organizing surprises funds in the UK.