15 European gambling regulators unite to tackle loot box threat
Emma Kent, reporting for Eurogamer on mostly European regulators teaming up to tackle "the blurring of lines between gaming and gambling":
The key focus for the parties involved appears to be "tackling unlicensed third-party websites offering illegal gambling linked to popular video games". If you're wondering what this is, think back to skin betting site CS:GO Lounge, which allowed users to bet real money on a pot of their CS:GO items until Valve cracked down on the site in 2016. Many of these still exist, and regulators want both the video games industry and technology platforms "to play their part in helping crack down on these websites".
But the investigation won't stop there. The regulators stated games providers must "ensure that features within games, such as loot boxes, do not constitute gambling under national laws".
Good luck to them. The status quo is such a shitshow that any change is likely to be good. On one hand, you have no-name scumbags pushing gambling to kids under false pretenses. On the other, you have some of the biggest companies in the world subjecting millions of players to basically the same thing.
Regulate away, governments. Regulate away.
🎮 funtime-error
