A recent Australian study claims that loot boxes and gambling are connected, which is a really bad news for the proponents of the in-game features and video gaming.
The Environment and Communications References Committee (ECRC) started a research in video game loot boxes in June this year. Only a couple of months later, the group has revealed the research’s findings after almost 7,500 people were examined by Dr. David Zendle and Dr. Paul Cairns who led the survey.
A public hearing into gaming micro-transactions for chance-based items is being held this afternoon
Live: https://t.co/9Lgw5iFZlr pic.twitter.com/fzBFVZRCZa— Australian Senate (@AuSenate) September 17, 2018
According to the results of the research, problem gamblers seem to spend more money on in-game features such as loot boxes.
According to the results of the survey carried out by Dr. Cairns and Dr. Zendle, loot boxes could be responsible for gambling-related harm. The two of them suggested that loot boxes could be the first step towards real gambling and added in-game items could exploit disorders without regulation.
The researchers reminded that in industry statements, loot boxes are normally not described as a form of gambling, as such in-game items are claimed similar to harmless products such as trading Kinder Surprise eggs. Dr. Zendle and Dr. Cairns, however, disagree. They explained that loot boxes may not be formally similar with other forms of gambling but they definitely meet what they called the “psychological criteria” to be considered gambling.
Links Found between Problem Gambling and Loot Box Spending
Over the past few years, loot boxes have become increasingly popular among people who are engaged with video gaming. However, some started to blame them for being too addictive and claimed these in-game items resemble gambling, so this was basically how loot boxes caught regulatory bodies’ attention worldwide.
Loot boxes are special in-game items that are found by players and can be purchased by them throughout the course of the game, but players do not know what is inside and only hope for the best because sometimes valuable and rare items are found inside. According to the ones criticising loot boxes, the latter have much more to do with gambling than to video gaming, as they put money to “gamble” on the content of the box without actually knowing what is inside.
The report reads:
“Our large-scale study found important links between loot box spending and problem gambling.”
The results of the survey conducted by the ECRC actually supported the opinion of experts who claim that loot boxes psychologically resemble gambling and can actually bring gambling-related harm to players. As a matter of fact, the research found that the more severe a person’s gambling addiction, the more they normally spend on loot boxes. The report further noted that spending large amounts of money on loot boxes could be associated with gambling addictions typical for other forms of gambling.
The lead investigators further gave their recommendations to the industries in terms of games which contain loot boxes, saying that regulatory authorities should definitely give serious consideration to imposing certain restrictions on the sale of games featuring loot boxed to players.
- Author
Daniel Williams
