Australia is falling behind other countries when it comes to the regulation of video games that have been blamed for encouraging underage individuals to gamble.
Over the last few years, more countries around the world, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, China and Japan, are imposing stricter measures on video games, and more specifically, to so-called loot boxes, which market analysts and researchers have been blaming for providing children with gambling options. Australia, however, has still not adopted stricter measures for the practice.
Loot boxes are a type of in-game items that offer virtual prizes to customers and can be purchased for real money. However, some experts and anti-gambling campaigners have been claiming they are actually a form of gambling because players do not know what prize they will get before they pay for a “box”.
In 2020, the mental health director at the National Health Service of the UK, Claire Murdoch, warned that loot boxes and other in-game items could trigger problem gambling among underage individuals. At the time, she shared an opinion that operators should not offer gambling options to children through loot boxes.
Many Video Games Meet Criteria to Be Considered Gambling, Analysts Say
According to Jum Sauer, a researcher from the University of Tasmania, Australia has not done much to respond to the issue associated with loot boxes, while the response had varied on a global scale. While some countries have tried to suspend loot boxes from being offered by gaming and gambling providers, Australian authorities and regulators do not seem to be much worried about what seems to be a serious issue.
Dr Sauer explained that one of the major analysts’ concerns associated with loot boxes was the fact that in-game items were easily accessible to young players. The researcher further noted that many of the major games that feature loot boxes actually met the psychological criteria to be characterised as a form of gambling. He shared that researchers reviewed a total of 22 games in a 2-year period and almost 50% of them met all five criteria to be considered a form of gambling. What was even more concerning, was the fact that all of them were featured in games that were accessible for underage players.
As explained by Dr Sauer, there was not enough evidence about the possible harm that could be faced in the longer term by children who have been exposed to loot boxes in video games. He, however, highlighted that people who are predisposed to developing gambling addictions were the ones who usually poured more money into loot boxes.
Experts have warned that children and young adults tend to be increasingly turning to gaming and gambling over the last year and a half as a way to cope with the stress and anxiety associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. According to analysts, traumas associated with the coronavirus pandemic could bring about coping mechanisms, and video games and in-game items available in such games, have been some of these mechanisms.
Anti-gambling campaigners, such as the independent federal Member of Parliament Andrew Wilkie, have been calling for the Australian Government to reconsider its position on video games’ loot boxes, even though it does not believe they equal gambling because players are not given the chance to cash out their “winnings”. Even though evidence on the matter is still limited, there are studies that have suggested a relationship between gamers’ engagement with loot boxes and gaming and gambling disorders.
- Author
Daniel Williams
