The head of mental health for the National Health Board of England has published a report claiming that loot boxes in video games will force children to gamble.
More specifically, "under the radar" gambling-a form of gambling that may not immediately be considered gambling.
Mental health director Claire Murdoch wrote in the new report: "Frankly, no company should make children addictive by teaching them to gamble these loot boxes." "No company should have Elements of this opportunity are sold to children's loot box games, so these sales should end. "
The report said: "The investigation found many cases of children spending money without their parents' knowledge, including a 16-year-old boy paying £ 2,000 at a basketball game and a 15-year-old boy losing 1,000 in a shooting game GBP,"
Murdoch continues to call on game publishers to ban the use of loot boxes, introduce in-game spending limits, inform players of the chances of actually receiving specific items before purchasing the loot box, and "support parents' awareness of the risk of game spending by increasing their parents. "
For now, loot boxes are not regulated by the English Gambling Commission. Murdoch's report states that this is simply due to "holes": "Nevertheless, third-party websites that sell game accounts and rare items are common and can be easily found on places such as eBay on the Internet."
Last year, England's Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield called on authorities to include a loot box in gambling legislation. "The children told us that they were worried they would gamble when buying loot boxes, and it is clear that some children are spending hundreds of pounds to catch up with their losses," Longfield said. "I hope the government will give loot in games like FIFA. Boxes are classified as a form of gambling. "In contrast to the World Health Organization's classification of gaming disorders as diseases, the report acknowledges that online gaming can help develop social connections and develop strategic skills.
The UK's Digital, Cultural, Media and Sports (DCMS) Committee published its own report in 2019, describing the impact of addictive mechanisms in games, and eventually recommended that the European Ratings Committee PEGI apply the same rating system as gambling software to have Predatory game box.
In 2019, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have expanded their commitments to the transparency of the loot box, requiring developers to publicly disclose the "rareness or possibility" of getting random items in the loot box. Fortnite's epic game will be added later.
