The Danish Gambling Authority has recently issued a statement on the concept of loot boxes following the concerns that the gaming community brought up after the launch of Star Wars Battlefront II. Earlier this month, the Belgian Gaming Commission deemed that loot boxes were a form of gambling, and it looks like other authorities are also investigating the matter as well.
According to the Danish Gambling Authority, the organization has set out three criteria in which a loot box can be considered a form of gambling or not. Those three criteria are:
1. There must be a deposit
2. There must be an element of coincidence
3. There must be a win (if the prize is a fictitious item, it should be able to translate it into financial terms).
In laymen terms, the criteria essentially breaks down to if the item inside the loot box can be sold for real money or not. The statement goes on to cite examples of what they do consider gambling, but Star Wars Battlefront II does not fall into that category:
“They are covered by the Act on Gambling because skins from these games can be sold on different websites, and thus converted into money. Loot boxes in games other than Star Wars Battlefront 2 must be considered individually as it is not possible to generally assess whether the items won in a loot box can be converted into money. Therefore, it can not be excluded that loot boxes may in some cases be covered by the Act on Gambling.”
With that being said, the Danish Gambling Authority did acknowledge that they were aware of a loot box problem and did say it was a concern. The statement says that they will continue to follow developments, as loot boxes are typically found in games aimed at children. Regardless of the particular situation, it seems like more and more regulatory committees are beginning to take aim at loot boxes in gaming.
[Source: PC Invasion]
